tbc
Neale argued in his study of cinema genres that audiences bring with them expectations on genre codes and conventions, and that their interaction is central to the construction and definition of genre, an endlessly ongoing process. Katz and Blumler also argued that simply recognising common features is another source of audience pleasure, and motivation to view (and, crucially for the music video, repeatedly re-view) a video. Neale also noted the importance to audiences of "differences in repetition", while Abercrombie noted that audiences gain pleasure from observing manipulations of standard genre conventions. In our video we took the convention of [EX; seen with
eg/s of videos] and gave it a distinctly different slant by [EX].
There are other ways in which we can see how Blumler and Katz's work helps illuminate the interplay between audience and producers when it comes to genre. Their best known concept, the uses and gratifications theory, sets out key motivations for audiences to select the media they consume, and its clear that genre encoding is crucial in the context of music video. Identification, one of their 5 categories, was a core consideration in constructing our video, and clearly for professional producers too. [The EX is distinct depending on the genre: rock = everyday, relatable clothing [detail!], low key lighting, de-emphasising glamour while pop/dance is typically the opposite BUT may mix it up to strengthen the brand and audience appeal. This concept can also be applied to your NARRATIVE! Some videos directly represent fans within a video - you all have viral elements you can tie in]. This can also be at the aspirational level, and [EX: instrumental ability for rock, dancing for pop/dance, but also costume...]
My genre is known for featuring what Altman refers to as [emotional/visceral pleasures or intellectual puzzles], which can be seen in the [existing vid EX]. In mine, we [EX]
Costume is a defining feature of genre conventions in music video, and we noted the following as typical, further backed up by our own audience primary research [you can BRIEFLY detail if you want to]. Hebdige placed distinctive costume at the heart of his concept of subculture, and that clearly applies here. Much of our own costume/make-up work [EX] would be recognised within the broader genre of ..., but we did incorporate specific signifiers of this sub-culture [EX]
Genre, as we've seen, is a crucial concept for commercially exploiting music and for artists to attract an audience, but the concept can prove very loose when examined closely. The postmodernist Baudrillard put it typically colourfully when describing genre as [use all or any 1 part of his quote: 'a principal of contamination, a law of impurity, a parasitical economy']. Katie Wales put it even more bluntly when arguing that 'genre is an intertextual concept'. I found many examples of [genre] videos that reflected this [EX], borrowing from film, Tv and wider culture as well as from within and beyond this music video genre. In ours, we encoded intertextual references to [EX]. This was one means of avoiding simply being what Negus describes as a 'generecist, rather taking a pastichist approach. As we don't expect every viewer to recognise these references, there also what Rick Altman, in discussing pleasures that audiences gain from genres, describes as 'intellectual puzzles'. Bourdieu, whose work fits well with Hebdige's subculture concept, would recognise the 'cultural capital' on offer to those who can correctly identify the influences from our work.
