Genre Signifiers

Pop

Close up shots are particularly important in pop videos as it relates back to the artist and also enables facial expressions to be shown, the lighting is usually bright. The editing is usually upbeat which continues the theme of the music being uplifting. In regards to costumes and props, bright coloured costumes are usually used, the style of clothing is usually whatever's in trend and mainstream at the time as the people that like pop music are usually into finding out the current trends. Within pop music videos there is usually some link between the video itself and the lyrics of the song, the main theme of most pop songs is usually love and romance, this can relate to the audience of the song. One of the main scenes in most pop videos is to have the artists perform the song, usually also with a dance routine.



Hip Hop

Often in hip hop videos, there's a use of low-angled shots which implies power of the artist over the audience. Close ups are also used to signify their status as artists over us as the audience. A popular scene for hip hop music is to have a crowd of people dancing along to the beat of the song, making the song look like it can be enjoyed by a large amount of people. A main mis-en-scene feature is the references to wealth throughout which just like the camera angles is another way the artists trues to signify their status. Most male hip hop artists use other males in their video in order to show males as being the more powerful and dominant sex, however this is at times challenged by female artists such as Nicki Minaj who portrays a different idea in her videos.



Rock

The colour black is a common convention of a rock music video, the lighting also tends to be low-key in order to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere to go with the song and lyrics. The sounds are often heavy which again represents the mood of the song. The choice of costume are often alternative and different, its unlikely to find an on trend outfit in a rock video, makeup is usually heavy and hair is often messy with unnatural colours at time. The mis-en-scene often comes in the form of facial expressions and body language which are used to present the mood and theme of the song. The editing is carefully chosen to relate to the tempo of the song, often rock songs are either very upbeat in which case editing would be faster, or at times they're slow and dark which would mean slower editing. In most occasions, the narrative in the video tells the story of the song through the visuals.