What are the uses and implications of genre for producers and audiences?

Producers use genre to cater to and meet the demands of pre-existing audiences. Christine Gledhill said that 'differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered to...' meaning that there are audiences for each genre, and the conventions of the genres are used to cater to or meet the demands of the audiences in products. Following on from that, she says '... This made it easier to standardise and stabilise production' which means that producers can use genre to make products consistent and similar, using formulas within genres to meet the demands and expectations of the audiences. This leads audiences to want the same formulas, which could mean that creativity in production is suppressed or stifled as conventions are not developed or challenged by sticking to formulas, which doesn't allow for much creative freedom in products.

 Another way producers use genres and genre conventions to merge and create hybrid genres, as said by Nicholas Abercrombie, who stated that 'the boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable' which I saying that there are less pure genres, as they are being merged and combined. Which is used to widen audiences as they can target pre-existing audiences of the genres being combined which is achieved by products using conventions or features of other genres. In addition, another reason for this increasing shift and permeability of genre into hybrid genres offer more variety by mixing conventions. For example, many films use conventions of many different genres, which as well as creating hybrid genres, may develop genres as well, possibly allowing for more variety and creative freedom within genres.

 In addition, audiences use genre as a way of defining their identity. Christine Gledhill also says that 'genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience", which could imply that audiences use genre to form community, and from that, identity. As genres form loyal audiences and community, they also create communities against specific genres, as with people who define themselves to a genre, there are people who choose to define themselves against a genre. But either way they form their identity because of the genre, or possibly because of the audience associated with the genre, which may help continue to create and maintain an audience for the genre, of those who are interested in the genre.

In relation to our production, the song we have chosen to produce a music video for is a mix of genres, as it borrows elements from genres such as rock, pop and indie and merges them together to form a hybrid genre. The song mostly includes elements of rock than any of the other genres, with the typical rock instruments such as electric guitars, drums, and a bass guitar. As the song is a hybrid genre helps with marketing, as ways of appealing to audiences associated with rock, pop and indie can be reached with music video conventions and marketing conventions.

Sounds similar to the song we have chosen include artists such as Mitski and Cherry Glazerr. Mitski's 'Your Best American Girl' is a mix between rock and indie, with the acoustic elements mixed with rock instruments, as well as performance in the music video, which is an important convention of the rock genre. Cherry Glazerr mostly uses rock elements in their songs with the typical rock instruments, and in their video of the song 'Told You I'd be With The Guys' they use the common feature of rock music videos of band performance, which is used to promote the band's concerts and live performances. That is a feature we will use for our music video as the song takes a lot of elements from rock and indie, which conventionally use performance in music videos, and lip-sync for pop, with close ups of the singer. This will allow us to cater to pre-existing audiences by following the conventions of the genres.

What can we learn from 'The Pretender'?

Chosen Song

He Never Shows - Pom Pom Squad



Lyrics

You are the shadow in the doorway
Gently bleeding on your pickguard
Wrapped around your finger

You said you wanted to steal me away
So I packed a bag, but you never came
And I know that you don't owe me anything
I'm just sick of loving meaning waiting

And you are so hard to hold
He'll call you up but he never shows

Why do you act like you don't when you do,
Just because I used to like you back in high school?
You've got your checklist of shitty excuses
And I've got a habit of making boys like you my muses

And you are so hard to hold
He'll call you up but he never shows
And you are so hard to hold
He'll call you up but he never shows

We chose this song because of it's length, because the song is short it will be easier to a music video as less footage is needed and it is unlikely that we will have to repeat shots or find ways of filling the rest of the song which is a problem previous music videos have faced. In addition, the song's lyrics can be used for the narrative, which will be easy to structure because of the song's clear sections, such as the second verse. However the music video would probably be more successful as more of a performance video which is a convention of the indie rock genre. As the song has a clear beat and clear vocals, the shots will be easy to sync to the beat as well as the performance or lip sync parts will most likely include.

5 Years Time Remake

Evaluation 

Aesthetic
The locations for the shots that we found to use were good as they looked as close to the original video as we were probably going to get with the lack of budget and limited time frame, as well as other limitations we faced when organising and finding locations. The shots outside were successful because of the weather at the time and their likeness to the original, especially the final shots, as it was sunny which helped the shots look more aesthetically pleasing and more similar to the shots outside in the original video. The pub was a good choice to film instead of the other potential alternative at the time which was the Study Hall at school, with the wood paneling, but that location was used for a shot later in the music video, for the pub shots it wouldn't have worked as well as an actual pub. For the shots inside, of the band and group dancing, the location on its own wouldn't have been successful, but the white sheet used as a backdrop and the lighting made those shots successful. However, during the shots of the band inside, the sheet wasn’t big enough to cover all of the wall in the classroom. The props were useful for creating a similar and successful image, especially the shots with the ‘5’ balloon and the instruments. The costumes used for the outside shots were very similar to the original, except the shorts and shirts were white instead of yellow, but they were as close to the original we could get, and they helped make the outside shots successful.


Teamwork
In terms of roles, we were given specific roles and jobs to do before filming, but when it came to filming, most people abandoned their roles and just did what they could to help. When we were filming, a few people had nothing to do as there were two people in charge of filming and choreography, and the actors were mostly in charge of bringing and sorting out their props, which meant that lots of people had nothing to do, so there could have been more jobs or roles for people, or we should have kept the role we assigned before filming, but the way we did it got the filming finished in time and seemed easier to do it the way it was at the time. The scheduling was successful as we managed to use almost a whole school day for filming and got most of the filming done in that day, we managed to organise the hour or two at the pub well, so we had all the actors, props, cameras etc. for the hours. We organised and scheduled the hour or two at the pub and the full day filming to fit in time everyone had available or could make available (e.g. enrichment).

How and why do different genres use performance and lip sync?

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5. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit 
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7. This song and music video used lip sync and performance to promote their live shows, as live shows are where rock bands can make a lot of money, so including performance in music videos gives people a taster of what the band is like live. Also, for this genre they used performance to emphasise the grungy aspects of the song and make the video look unpolished, like the song is supposed to be to emphasise the rock/grunge genre. Another reason performance and lip sync is used in this music video could be to help the band promote a brand image, which is linked to promoting live performances, this music video is to help the band show they are different from other rock bands, by emphasising the grunge elements with the messy feel to it, the emphasised and messy guitar playing and headbanging help promote their style and also could be promoting their live performances. 

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3. One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful
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5. This music video of the pop genre probably uses lip sync to connect with the audience and the fans more, the chorus of the song is lip synced which could be because the band are trying to aim the message at the audience and connect with them. Lip syncing is conventional of the pop/boy band genre and music videos as they usually do this to connect with their fans and make them feel like they are singing to each individual fan, another convention of boy band music videos is that they usually look at the camera as they lip sync as if they are looking at the audience or individual and reinforces the idea that they use this to connect with fans. Also, this band possibly uses lip sync to promote their live performances, as this band in particular earned a lot of money from live performances. 
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8. Rihanna - Unfaithful 
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10. In this music video lip sync and performance is used more to connect with the audience and the artist's intended fans. This is conventional of the pop genre, as artists of this genre don't really use lip sync to help promote their live performances, or to create a sense of authenticity. They do it because its conventional of the genre as in most pop songs the artists will lip sync, the reason for this is probably to do with connecting with their audience or fans, as to them it will feel like the artist is speaking or singing to them, which is similar to the second song. However, unlike the One Direction song, this music video switches between performance, and narrative which is also conventional of the pop genre.
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Possible Songs

This song has a clear beat all the way through, which will mean that when making the video, we will be able to cut on the beat. In addition, the song builds up, adding instruments as the song progresses, which sort of gives the song sections, but not very clear ones and once the song has built up it only changes from that for a few seconds when it takes away some of the insturments. Sections could be used to help structure the narrative of the music video, as well as the lyrics and in this song the lyrics are simple and clear, they also sort of have a story and progression, but the song is quite repetitive as there isn't much variety. It has a good length as the song is 3:16 minutes long. There is also a slight change in the song, a change in the style or possibly genre of music, which could be seen as a strength as it adds variety to the song or a problem as it may mean that the song doesn't have a consistent genre, but it is consistent throughout the rest of the song. 






The strengths of this song are that it has a clear beat which will be useful when making the video as we will be able to cut on the beat as well as having a clear sound quality and clear lyrics which could be useful for lip sync or performance in the music video. The song does have a bit of variety and a few different sections, however, the sections repeat and the main part is too long and it becomes boring. Also the song is quite slow, which also makes it slightly boring, as well as more difficult to make a video. The song is a bit too long as well, as it is 4:10 minutes long. Also, the lyrics won't be very useful for a possible narrative for the music video as they don't really progress and what the song is about could be difficult to make a music video about. However the song is consistent and has a clear genre throughout, which is useful as we could use the conventions of music videos of that genre.





This song has a clear and steady beat, which will be useful as it will enable us to synchronise the editing to it, by cutting on the beat for example. The song is a good length, it's quite short (2:26) which means that it will be easier to make a video, and also the song isn't repetitive, the song has clear sections, which add variety to the song. The sections could help structure the narrative of the video as well. Also, some of the lyrics could be used to inspire the narrative. The genre is clear, so we will be able to use conventions of the indie rock genre in the music video. 

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