Genre

Genre is a style or category of art, music, literature and film. Key genres for music are mainly rock, pop, rap, classical, country and jazz. There are also sub-categories for examples like indie, punk, emo, electro, house, trap, grime and dubstep. Genre is a category class system first used by the Greeks, it was used to put different styles and types of dramas, plays and poetry. The Romans then continued the system and also used it to put certain styles with similar styles.

Pop/Rap History

The genre popular music originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll. The term "pop song" was first recorded being used in 1926. The term "pop music" apparently first appeared in Britain in the mid 1950's. Ever since the first appearance of "pop music" in the 1950's, pop has had the special meaning of non-classical music. Rapping is the process of speaking/chanting lyrics that rhyme. The main components of rapping include; content, flow, rhythm and overall delivery. Rapping is distinct to ordinary spoken word poetry as that it is normally performed with a beat in the background. 

Ideologies

Pop and rap have similar ideologies. They are about being in power, wealth, good life style and control. They both rely on a catchy beat that will get people attention and they also have a good set of lyrics that follow the beat, this will compose an appealing track and people will want to buy it.

Representation

The overall style is similar to indie as it isn't as professional as the pop genre. The mixtures of pop and rap, is done to make new interesting music and get a larger audience that will listen to their music. Pop and rap artists represent themselves as powerful, popular, and they wear mainstream fashion, its all about looking good and making so that the majority of the audience can relate to them and their styles.

Target audience

The target audience is students and young adults. Its typical for these people to follow mainstream music and fashion. They also like the contrast of the two genres of pop and rap, which combine makes a new fashionable style.

Musical style/characteristics

The main style and general characteristics of pop/rap music include; hip hop beats which include strong melodic hooks. The combination of pop and rap, keeps the good rhythmic tune but removes the aggressive style of rap, the pop helps it to be catchy and keep the audiences attention.  

 

 

 

 

 

Analysis of a Music video

Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa-Young, Wild and Free, this song is falls into genre of rap pop, it shows us typical conventions of the genre and what we are likely to see in rap pop music videos. The style of the song is slightly more rap than pop, where as our sound its more pop, maybe a little bit alternative, but they show and follow similar patterns.

This is the second shot of the music video, its composed of three different shot types, mid-shot, long shot and a extreme long shot. It tries make the audience feel like they are in the shot by using a POV shot. The props and costumes in the scene are very typical of rap music, the gold chain, the gold watch and sun glasses all represent wealth and power, which is very typical. The sports vests look like they are from a high school making the younger audience relate to them as they may also be still in school. Also typical of rap pop music videos they are doing something that they shouldn't be going, they are trespassing and hitting golf balls and a outdoor cinema screen, this appeals to a younger rebellious audience who are trying to find themselves in life.

This two mid shots suggest a lot of things about the rap pop culture. The both show a convention seen in a lot of rap pop videos but not all, drug use. drugs are seen a lot in music videos of this genre as it is a recreational thing that a lot of young people may do, this means a lot of young people that do marijuana or are living their lives around marijuana at school, they will be able to relate very easily. This relates to the convention of having a good time and living for now, being relaxed and being able to do what you want. In the top image we can see Snoop Dogg's are has "2001-2010" on his arm, each of the years have been crossed out, meaning he has never graduated from high school, this could be seen in to lights, on one had its suggests that all drug users are failure and it its warning young people not to take drugs or it can be seen as that even though he has failed each year and has graduated he is still having fun and enjoying himself. That second one would be more appealing to younger people.

This mid-shot shows everybody partying and having a good time, this is very typical to see in music rap pop videos, its normally all about having fun and enjoying yourself. The lighting in this shot has been set up very effectively, it is a POV shot, so they have used the light on top of the camera to make it have a similar feeling to a hand held video recorder. The bubbles are very good at lighting up the shot and not making it dull as the light reflects off of the bubbles. Through the whole music video the shots are cut in time with the beat and work very well it keeping the video going and in time. Also they used a lot of straight cuts and never use any effects to make transitions between shots. Bu they do use special effects to show when Wiz Khalifa is having a drug trip or when he is high.