Blog Post 4: The Pop Music Genre

What is Pop Music? What Are The Conventions of Pop Music and Pop Music Videos?

Pop music is a genre that originated in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid-1950s. Although pop music lends aspects from other genres, its main characteristics are:

• general appeal for a mainstream audience,

• emphasis on recording, production and technology due to big budgets

• tends to reflect trends, little innovation within the pop genre

• rhythms that encourage dancing

• similar Chord progressions, the 4 main progressions being

- I–V–vi–IV (optimistic)

- V–vi–IV–I

- vi–IV–I–V (pessimistic)

- IV–I–V–vi

Use of bright colours, beauty shots and juxtaposing shots
and editing in Jonas Brothers' 'Sucker'

Usually, there is lots of focus on the catchy hooks, melodies and noticeable rhythmic element within the song. The song itself is around 3 minutes long and is structured so that the chorus has a melodic and rhythmic to the rest of the song. The song topics are simple, easy to understand themes, often revolving around love and relationships. These straightforward conventions for pop make it easy to combine with other genres to form hybrid genres, such as pop-rock, electropop and country-pop.

Use of makeup and accessories give the stylised,
professional look in pop from Taylor Swift's 'Lover'

In pop music videos, the mise en scene tends to be bright colours, highly stylised with lots of makeup and accessories. The framing is usually many close-ups of the artists face for beauty shots or money shots. For the editing, there is heavy use of disjuncture, as theorised by Vernallis, which creates a fast-paced feel to many music videos. A music video tends to have a performance of the artist intercut with a narrative, which could either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.

Intertextuality in Pop

Shot of Ariana Grande's 'Thank U, Next'

The scene in 'Mean Girls' that 'Thank U, Next' was referring to

As Andrew Goodwin theorised, there often intertextual reference in music videos, referring to other media to attract an audience of the referenced media or to make those who pick on the reference to feel unique. It can also be used to add another layer of depth to the meaning of the video or to anchor the meaning of the music video. Alternatively, it can be used to parody another text. In Ariana Grande's 'Thank U, Next', she refers to several texts, one being 'Mean Girls'. It starts off talking about rumours of Ariana similar to the beginning of 'Mean Girls', then goes to a talent show scene from the movie.

Pop Music History

The genre of 'pop music' originated in Britain in the mid-50s and was derived from rock and roll. The first pop music charts were recorded in 1952, with Beatles playing a big influence in the 60s. The Beatles experimented with various instruments in the genre, encouraging other groups like Nirvana to do the same. Another big influence of pop was Madonna, who was labelled as the 'Queen of Pop'. Her rise was due to the strong production work and the "sex appeal" look that attracted a male audience. Other big influences were Elton John, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley

Below, I created a timeline of some important events that happened in each decade from the 50s until now.

Analysis of Señorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello

Bedroom setting, exposed skin, seductive movements all
represent women in a sexualised way

In the music video of Shawn Mendes' and Camila Cabello's 'Señorita', it depicts a man and a woman meeting in a restaurant, riding off together and kissing. This reinforces that idea that the pop formula is usually something to do with relationship, as it is something that everyone either relates to or aspires to be like. Furthermore, Van Zoonen's feminism theory applies here as the woman is presented in a domestic environment, while the male is presented as charming and cool. The idea of sexualisation and objectification of the female body can also be seen as the female is denoted in a dimly lit room with exposed skin, moving seductively through a mix of LS and CU. This reference to the notion of looking through the voyeuristic treatment of the female body is a common convention seen in pop.

My research on the pop genre has made me consider what conventions I must include when I make my music video. After looking at how women tend to be objectified in music videos, I decided to try and do the opposite, creating positive, aspirational representations to promote gender equality. Since I'm trying to appeal to a mainstream audience, I want to appeal to boys as well. So I will create a dual narrative of a boy and girl, using cross-cutting between the two narratives to explore the ideas of gender equality. Furthermore, I will use intertextuality to anchor my message in my music video.