Research into my chosen Genre

Researching into a chosen genre: Pop 

The genre I've decided to research into is the genre of Pop since it is a genre that influences many up-to-date artists who could be considered as cross over artists that I listen to today such as Beyonce, Rihanna, Rita Ora, Taylor Swift, Chris Brown and Justin Bieber. 

Other than this, some of the most influential people have come out of the Pop genre from the 70's, 80's and 90's who have inspired the Pop artists of today to make music. Legendary icons such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, The Beatles, Blondie and Banana Rama have influences on artists like Ne-Yo, Lady Gaga and Beyonce today. 

I think the way that Pop artists have such influence over stars in the industry for 2,4,8 or even 10 years to come is fascinating and always a genre that I've really been in to. 

Billboard's Top 20 Pop Artists from the last 20 years: 

1. Rihanna 
2. Pink 
3. Britney Spears 
4. Kelly Clarkson 
5. Mariah Carey 
6. Katy Perry 
7. Usher 
8. The Black Eyed Peas 
9. Janet Jackson 
10. Madonna 
11. Lady Gaga 
12. Christina Aguilera 
13. Justin Timberlake 
14. Nickleback 
15. Matchbox Twenty 
16. Beyonce 
17. Backstreet Boys 
18. Jennifer Lopez 
19. Maroon 5
20. Avril Lavigne 

From this list we can see that Pop is dominated highly by female singers with thirteen to just two men and the exception of five bands. What I also noticed is that there's a variety of artists on the list who wouldn't exactly be considered similar (i.e. Avril Lavigne/Janet Jackson or Matchbox Twenty/Katy Perry) but they've all been put under the umbrella term of Pop which is what makes the genre so flexible and versatile. This brings me back to our chosen artist of Rita Ora and the way in which she includes elements of Dance, R&B and Pop all into her tracks on her debut album which could place her having similar sounds to many other artists considered "Pop". 

Two artists that I've identified with having a similar sound to Rita are Rihanna and Amelia Lily. Starting with Rihanna who's more established than Rita Ora, the media and industry have already picked up on crazy similar variables between the two artists including image and sound.
Also, both artists have close relations with the record label "Roc Nation" infamous for producing R&B and R&B crossover artists.



The next artist I've decided to compare to Rita Ora is Amelia-Lily, one of X Factor's finalists of 2011 (a show that is a prime example of Dyer's Theory and star construction).
Although the two don't really appeal to the same artists as Rita Ora is more R&B/Pop and Amelia-Lily is more Pop/Dance, on Rita's album there are songs such as "Radioactive", "Fall in Love" and "Hot Right Now" which have a Dance/Pop sound to them which sound similar to the material of Amelia-Lily. Therefore this would be interesting to revise and get some ideas from to know our chosen artist even further.

Analyzing Rita Ora and Rihanna and looking at the R&B side of her Genre 
                                                                                    Genre Characteristics 
As both of these tracks are R&B they both have similar characteristics that form to the conventions of the genre. For example typical features such as iconography of materialistic items like fashion and jewelry making both of the women appear more sophisticated and glamorizes the idea of wealth placing both Rita and Rihanna in a position of importance and possibly makes them more appealing to their audience of mainstream R&B fans.
Also in "You Da One" there's a black and white effect used which is a typical editing feature of R&B videos especially, while "R.I.P" doesn't have this, there's still certain clouded features blended with high key lighting to create a similar effect and meet their target audiences expectations of the video.
Both artists also represent the "media manipulated" idea of slim, sexy and beautiful females which is also sometimes used to encourage voyeurism within music videos that conform to the R&B genre. "You Da One" like "R.I.P" is completely performance based and doesn't have any elements of narrative present.

Mise-En-Scene/Iconography 
In both "You Da One" and "R.I.P" materialistic features of iconography are used starting with "R.I.P", a car is used in a few of the frames. This highlights the celebrity lifestyle and shows materialistic qualities from their lives in a positive and fashionable light. Likewise, with "You Da One" there's content of substances such as cigarettes that are also shown in a good light suggesting they're a trend or something to do to sexualize and make females look better. Within the video, Rihanna's shown by the use of a close up blowing cigarette smoke up into the air with a black and white filter in slow motion, almost mocking the 60's/70's glamour smoking and manipulating it into modern day mediums. Although there may be ethical arguments for why materialistic iconography isn't good to use as it influences the young audience of stars like this, materialistic features are almost what's expected of R&B music videos, especially in modern music.

Main Camera-Shots 
I noticed whist watching R.I.P and You Da One that although there are close-ups of the artist there are also a lot of long shots used to establish the area that the star is in even though both videos are set in warehouse looking areas that don't have much going on in them. Calm and basic settings such as warehouses, chilled clubs and houses/mansions are typical places for an R&B video to be set as it amplifies the smooth and relaxed beats that R&B traditionally is known for (applying to Goodwins Theory).
I also found that there's a lot of mid-shots used which enable an audiences connection with the star as they're looking straight through the camera lens in the audience direction. Like with artists working to becoming established this allows the audience to become familiar with their face and image or perhaps digest a new image that may not have been used in previous material - this applies to "You Da One".

Editing Techniques 
There are two cuts that are noticed more frequently in both of these videos are jump and straight cuts. The straight cuts enable the music video in the same setting to allow changes in angles and frames giving the overall look of the music video more diverse, however the jump cuts bring the audience to different scenes within the video and sometimes allow the artist to change looks and image. Jump cuts keep the music video interesting offering different settings with different  action and conventions. This technique is often used in R&B, Rap and Dance when the video is performance based.

Target Audience 
In broad terms both Rita Ora and Rihanna have the target audiences of mainstream R&B fans; both being signed to the same record label and having similar sounds causes for major comparisons to be made between the two and causes both audiences to explore the other star.
I think both Rita Ora and Rihanna have neither a male or female biased in their audiences, while they're both conventional of the R&B genre in the fact they both have that slim and sexy image that a lot of women in that genre have, both of them sing a lot of their songs from a female perspective - which makes them relatable to the male and female audience.
However, while it's apparent that both Rita Ora and Rihanna appeal to a mainstream R&B audience, I think it's important to recognize that they appeal to a young R&B audience since the sound of the genre has differentiated and evolved lot more compared to the 70's, 80's or even 90's for instance.

Representation of Artist 
I think conforming to the R&B genre has made both Rita and Rihanna convey to a very powerful, strong and independent image. They both have connotations of an 'alpha-female' in the fact that they'll always look dominant in the majority of their videos whether there are other males/females involved in the material or not and even their music connotes confidence and the freedom of being a women.
However if we're specifically looking at "You Da One" by Rihanna, I think that this music video represents her in another formation as she's an established and well known star and has shown different images that her fans have all brought into and followed in past music videos such as "California King Bed", "Man Down" and "Pon De Replay".
In contrast to this, "R.I.P" is showing Rita Ora in what's more considered her initial star image as she's newer to the music scene that Rihanna, her audience aren't going to know of previous images of hers and they don't have the already established connection with her look or the personality presented through her music video which could possibly mean that Rita Ora relies more on her representation in this video than Rihanna does in hers.

Music Video Style 
Both music videos are Performance based and feature the artists looking directly through the lens of the camera at their viewers - making the connection discussed in "Representation of Artist". This also makes room for materialistic iconography such as clothes, cars and jewelry to be shown in a less discrete way than they would be in a narrative based video.

• The relationship between lyrics/visuals/music: In both videos the visuals amplify the lyrics and music - cuts change on specific beats of the music and both singers are present to mime/lip sync the song to fulfill the audiences demand of wanting to see the artists face. 

How we can apply R&B conventions to our own video 
I think learning about the materialism and iconography that comes with the R&B genre can be considered when we begin to plan our music video. Even if we decide to go with a partially narrative based video as oppose to a fully performance based video I think that we can still consider the dominance and personality that R&B female stars translate through their visuals in order to stay generic to the R&B genre.

 Analyzing Rita Ora and Amelia Lily and looking at the Dance and Pop side of her Genre

Genre Characteristics 
The first big factor I noticed about "You Bring Me Joy" and "Hot Right Now" as oppose to "R.I.P" and "You Da One" is the amount of people that back up and support both Amelia Lily and Rita Ora in their visuals. As oppose to the R&B videos analyzed above where Rihanna and Rita were giving off the more independent women vibe, in these two Dance/Pop videos Rita and Amelia Lily are surrounded with different people (dancers and extras). This is conventional of both the Pop and the Dance genre as these genres convey the "feel-good" and "unity" vibes, making their listeners feel happy and bubbly, therefore reflecting this in the visuals is almost essential to highlight what the lyrics and the artists music is all about.
In addition to this "Hot Right Now" and "You Bring Me Joy" continue to amplify the feel good vibes of their genre as the settings of both videos are outside in the sunshine in lively atmospheres.

Mise-En-Scene/Iconography 
While there's iconography in "You Bring Me Joy" with Amelia Lily riding in a car along with the extras, I feel like this iconography was more to amplify and highlight the rush of the song and the feeling that the artist and extras were feeling at that point in the video rather than trying to glamorize the materialistic things in life.
Both Rita and Amelia-Lily are dressed in bright clothing which still makes them look slightly provocative and shows their toned, slim figures but it fits in more with the outdoor settings - both girls also have long necklaces around their neck which could perhaps connote their "star image" since a lot of other things in the video make them seem very similar to the extras. Even though they aren't playing on the R&B materialism, they still need to stand out as a star from the other people in the video.

Main Camera Shots & Editing Techniques 
While the camera shots in "You Bring Me Joy" and "Hot Right Now" vary all the way from close-ups to long shots, the editing techniques help massively to amplify and highlight the fast and significant beat that is vital in Pop and Dance songs and needs to be simultaneously catchy and memorable. The visuals often cut or change angles on the beats that are most dominant throughout the backing track.

Target Audience 
In obvious terms, the target audience of Amelia-Lily and Rita Ora are Pop/Dance mainstream fans. However, what has to be taken into consideration is that Amelia Lily has consistently produced Pop or Dance tracks with the music that she's released whereas Rita Ora has released and produced songs from her album that are a mixture of one or all of Pop, Dance & R&B. Therefore when looking to reach out to her target audiences through her music she may still need to bare in mind micro-elements of other genres even though the track she's producing is a certain genre. For instance in "Hot Right Now" the genre is mainly Pop and Dance although Rita still has the dominant, provocative and alpha female look that R&B females have a lot of the time to still appeal slightly to her fans that're more into other genres.

Representation of Artist
In "You Bring Me Joy" Amelia Lily is represented as fun, popular and free-spirited which very much mirrors the ideologies behind Pop music. She's the typical "Pop Princess" package with conventionally good looks; long hair, make-up, good fashion sense and a toned body and of course she's also represented as talented. Close-Ups throughout the music video are used to get across her personality and help the audience feel relevant emotions, for example while Amelia Lily's smiling, close-ups are used to make this expression clear and keep that feeling of happiness constant throughout the course of the track. Meanwhile, Rita Ora's representations are similar but again she still has her blonde hair and red lips that her fans can recognize from her "R.I.P" video even though "Hot Right Now" isn't R&B, making her look slowly become more familiar.

Music Video Style 
Both "You Bring Me Joy" and "Hot Right Now" are performance based videos, I think this compliments their Dance/Pop style as when the artists make connections through the camera with their audience it's almost like they're producing the feel-good, live in the moment life which allows their audience to also share the ideologies and culture of both Amelia Lily and Rita in also wanting to try out this lifestyle.

How we can apply Dance and Pop conventions to our own video 

I think Dance and Pop music videos most often have relationships between their lyrics, visuals and music. We can bare this in mind for our video when we're editing in order to make our final piece conform to the genres that our chosen track follows. Although our artist is crossover Pop/R&B, the song we're considering doing has more of an R&B beat to it which has conventions of materialistic things and expensive items. Since we're students and do not have the budget to cover costs like this, we want to use some conventions of Pop but still have jewelry and bring in some elements of fashion and London life to appeal to R&B fans who like elite micro-elements in music videos.