The genre that I have chosen to analyse is Electro-Pop. I researched artists that are often associated with Electro pop and two artists often appearing in my research are Nicki Minaj and LMFAO. I therefore I picked a music video from each artist to understand codes and conventions often being associated with this chosen genre.
For LMFAO I chose the song 'sexy and i know it' and for Nicki Minaj I chose 'stupid hoe.'
Below are the genre characteristics that are part of the codes and conventions of electro-pop, and screen grabs to illustrate them from the two chosen music videos.
Camera Shots:
In most electro pop music videos, their are numerous close ups of actors faces and the artists faces, this can be seen in the pictures below:
On the left is a close up of Nicki Minaj and the right is a close up of an actor in the LMFAO video. Close ups are often used to show the emotion of the artist, putting across the meaning of the song, This is true for electro-pop videos, however humorous, positive or silly these emotions or facial expressions are.
Another camera shot often found in electro pop videos is long establishing shots showing were the video is taking place (setting): This genre usually contains bold rooms or bright outdoor settings and as you can see on the left, Nicki Minaj uses a grand room for women to dance in, and LMFAO, on the right uses a bright street with colourful markets etc. for a large majority of the song. To link back to the use of camera shots, I have been able to tell where these music videos have taken place because of the establishing shots, often used in music videos.
Editing:
Bold editing is very popular for electro-pop music videos and there is often eye-catching edits throughout most of each video. Some editing is used to tell or remind the audience of who the artist is, like a last minute way of advertising the song/artist. This is by adding in text to the music video which can be seen on the left in Nicki Minaj's Stupid Hoe video. To make these videos even more exciting, video editors and directors will sometimes use a split screen where two clips can be shown at once, taking up half of the screen each, or perhaps less if there is more than two clips. This can be illustrated by the screen grab of Sexy and i know it on the right. Other editing involved in both these videos and many more electro-pop music is flickering between two clips and also the slowing down of clips which unfortunately cannot be shown using screen grabs but the two videos are at the bottom of this post to show this use of editing. One more example of editing would be the clour swaping/correction of a clip. For example, in stupid hoe, nicki minaj' lips change colour according to the background changing, which happens more than 10 times at the beginning of the video. Colour correction is very popular in this genre of music as directors/editiors of each video get the oppertunity to make it even brighter and more eye-catching.
Mise-en-scene:
Props:
Props are often quite random in electro-pop music videos. As you can see by both pictures, neither props have anything to do with the lyrics (there is no link between lyrics and visuals in terms of props). Nicki uses a skipping rope, and LMFAO use a robot head made of card. Although these props are somewhat irrelevant, the audience is attracted to the objects making the video more interesting to watch. This is true in the case of almost all elctro-pop videos: props are often used, either as random objects, or to help illustrate a lyric/line in the song.
Lighting in electro-pop videos can be articial or natural, or sometimes both. Natural lighting is almost always if the video is being shot outside and therefore the daylight is used. But is a scene is inside, the light will be artificial and the brightness will depend on the effect the director is looking for in his video. But the scenes inside a room/studio may not always be your typical spotlight or brightness focusing on the artist/ character. As you can see on the left, sometimes the atrist will be visible only as a silhouette.
Setting varies widely throughout all videos in this chosen genre. For example, a foorest, room, beach, field, pool or infront of a green screen to create any effect a director wants. On the left is Nicki Minaj balancing on a stand against a bold, block, blue background. These bold, block coloured backgrounds are very often seen in electro-pop music videos. To illustrate and outdoor setting is the picture on the right, which is part of LMFAO's video - a street running along side a beach which is visible later on the video.
Props:
Props are often quite random in electro-pop music videos. As you can see by both pictures, neither props have anything to do with the lyrics (there is no link between lyrics and visuals in terms of props). Nicki uses a skipping rope, and LMFAO use a robot head made of card. Although these props are somewhat irrelevant, the audience is attracted to the objects making the video more interesting to watch. This is true in the case of almost all elctro-pop videos: props are often used, either as random objects, or to help illustrate a lyric/line in the song.
Lighting:
Lighting in electro-pop videos can be articial or natural, or sometimes both. Natural lighting is almost always if the video is being shot outside and therefore the daylight is used. But is a scene is inside, the light will be artificial and the brightness will depend on the effect the director is looking for in his video. But the scenes inside a room/studio may not always be your typical spotlight or brightness focusing on the artist/ character. As you can see on the left, sometimes the atrist will be visible only as a silhouette.
Setting:
Setting varies widely throughout all videos in this chosen genre. For example, a foorest, room, beach, field, pool or infront of a green screen to create any effect a director wants. On the left is Nicki Minaj balancing on a stand against a bold, block, blue background. These bold, block coloured backgrounds are very often seen in electro-pop music videos. To illustrate and outdoor setting is the picture on the right, which is part of LMFAO's video - a street running along side a beach which is visible later on the video.
This post is to help illustrate some of the codes and conventions in the electro-pop videos, and as you can see, both videos use a large amount of props and editing. They also share the common use of bright colours and settings. It is clear that within this genre of music, videos are eye-catching, sometimes quite random, and as shown above, share alot of things in common including their genre characteristics.
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