Codes and Conventions of House Music

House music is a style of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. House is up-tempo music for dancing, although by modern dance-music standards it is mid-tempo and the tempo for house music tended to be slower in the early years of house.

House was boosted in the UK by the tour in March 1987 of Knuckles, Jefferson, Fingers Inc. The second best-selling British single of 1988 was a house record, the Coldcut-produced "The Only Way Is Up" by Yazz and this was the first house song in the UK. The majority of the top DJ's and producers in the electronic/house genre tend to hail from Holland.

The music videos for House music tend to have messages about dancing, love, sexuality, and drugs all underpinned with repetitive arrangements and a steady bass drum beat.

Another code & convention of a House music video is that it tend to have scantily clad women doing sexy and seductive dance moves. Also, they are usually dressed in clothes that expose their bodies and clothes that will attract a male audience. On the other hand, electronic/house songs tend not to have music videos, as the producers of the music feel that it should just always be about the music, and don't want anything taking away from their music.

Convetnions of Rock Music Videos

 Rock music is a popular genre of music that originates from the United states of America. Originally called “rock and roll”, rock music first started in the 1950s and continued to change decades later. Rock music is also influenced by other genres of music such as folk, country, classical and jazz and soon after it became popular a number of subgenres of rock were created like folk rock and jazz-rock fusion. Generally rock music is situated around using an electric guitar along with other instruments like the drums. Today rock music is still one of the most popular and recognizable genres of music with popular rock bands such as Foo Fighters, Green Day and Fall Out Boy.


Typically rock music is produced by a rock band with usually four or more members in the band. Normally the artist/band of the music will wear the colour black in most occasions (for example photo-shoots, performances and music videos). Usually rock artists/ band members will be covered in tattoos and have piercings, along with this they can be seen wearing make up (e.g. eyeliner) on numerous occasions, normally during performances. Normally a rock music video will use low-key lighting as they normally try to create a dark atmosphere/theme for the video so it matches the mood of the song. For example the music video for Hozier's Take Me to Church uses low-key lighting as well as a black and white effect throughout the video in order to keep in tone with the mood that the song creates. However high-key lighting will be used on occasions e.g. in the form of a spotlight to emphasis the performance of the band/artist. A lot of rock music videos are set in places like outdoor areas and cities. Normally the setting for the video will be kept simple and filmed in a secluded area so that the video can be focused more on the performance aspect instead of what's going on in the background. An example of this is the Foo Fighter's video for their song 'Run' which is primarily focused on their performance aspect but also has a rather comedic spin.

Male Gaze - Laura Mulvey's Theory

The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and literature depict the world and women from a masculine point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure. The phrase male gaze was coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975. The “male gaze” invokes the sexual politics of the gaze and suggests a sexualised way of looking that empowers men and objectifies women. In the male gaze, woman is visually positioned as an “object” of heterosexual male desire. Her feelings, thoughts and her own sexual drives are less important than her being “framed” by male desire. Nowadays, there are many different forms of 'gazes' in media, such as the female gaze and homosexual gaze, which visually objectifies males much to the visual pleasure of the opposite sex.

The 'male gaze' can be traced back centuries, most famously to the 'Mona Lisa' by Leonardo Da Vinci. This is the renaissance version of objectifying women through visual arts if you really want to read deep in-between the lines. A clear example of the male gaze in renaissance times are the naked paintings/depictions of women. This is as clear as daylight that those were the pornography of the renaissance era, objectifying women for the pleasure of males.

History of Music Videos

In 1981, MTV was the original start-up: a company whose product didn’t quite exist yet. Despite launching as a 24/7 music television channel, in I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum describe how initially the network had only “about a hundred” promotional clips, as the music videos “in inventory, were mostly by marginal or unpopular British or Australian bands.” MTV was forced to go to record labels and ask them to make these videos for free, which they would then go on to screen.

Fast forward to the present day. TV is in decline and it’s taking MTV along with it – in 2015, Nielsen Data suggested the channel had lost 40% of their 12-34 year old audience in the previous five years. But let’s be clear, this doesn’t mean young people’s appetite for videos has waned – a report from 2015 found that millennials spend most time online watching videos (admittedly this is tied with their other #1 favourite activity – spending time on social media). Meanwhile a lot has changed since the 1980s, including the prestige factor of music videos – heavyweight directors are more and more eager to get involved in the industry, while the technological advances offered by the internet means music videos are increasingly experimental.

Pre MTV

Before Beyoncé, there were The Beatles. Just like Beyoncé in 2016, The Beatles were eager to give their fans the fullest audio-visual experience possible, recording promotional clips that could be shown abroad. They also starred in two full-length films, Help! and A Hard Day’s Night. Other bands would follow their lead and also make promotional clips in the ’60s and ’70s. David Bowie was also an early-adopter, releasing the video for “Space Oddity” in 1969. Probably the most significant music video of this era was Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which debuted in 1975. When “Bohemian Rhapsody” rocketed to the top of the charts in Britain, the band were on tour and couldn’t perform on the British music show, Top of the Pops.

MTV Launches (1981)

The music video giant launched at 12.01AM Eastern Time on 1 August 1981 with The Buggles’ video, which had first aired two years previously on Top of the Pops in lieu of a live performance. The message of The Buggles’ hit — that advances in technology could pre-empt a cultural shift — proved prescient when the pop artists who created the most talked-about videos began to dominate the musical landscape. This climate of publicity in exchange for great visuals was established by Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in 1983.  Thriller isn’t just a seriously great video. It acts as the origin story for what we recognize as music videos for major artists today: high production values, Hollywood directors  and a clear narrative. It was also ludicrously expensive to make in comparison to the other videos of the time — it cost over $500,000 to make at a time when most videos cost in the tens of thousands to produce. The full 13-minute video debuted on MTV as part of an exclusive deal MTV struck with MJ’s team and was played 3-5 times a day, something which increased MTV’s audience tenfold. In 2009, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. Despite this coming over 20 years after the video’s initial release, it marked the first time a music video had received this honour.

Decline of MTV

After The Real World launched to insane viewing figures, MTV decided to take a chance on reality TV. They introduced growing numbers of reality TV shows and started phasing out music shows. As I Want My MTV’s Rob Tannenbaum told NPR “It’s very easy to trace the line from The Real World to Snooki…It’s an alcoholic, crooked line all the way there, but MTV quickly realized and learned that narrative television, even reality TV, rated better than music videos.” This meant ultimately that music videos weren't getting the attention they deserved or needed.

Resurgence Of Music Videos (2005–)

In 2005, former PayPal co-workers Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim created YouTube, which they initially intended to be a way people could share their home videos with each other. In October 2006, YouTube was acquired by Google and in 2009, Vevo was born. It was the product of debate between Universal Music Group (UMG) and Google over content licensing for YouTube. Vevo meant record labels could actually make money on their videos being streamed — small ads often appear on the bottom of the video as well as links to buy the music you’re listening to. Finally, artists were starting to get the recognition they deserved for their music videos. Thanks to advertising revenue, up and coming artists could start to make a small buck for whatever they were producing, all whilst reaching a broader audience.

Andrew Goodwin Theory

Andrew Goodwin has a theory that states that in the vast majority of cases, a music video will be reflected by the lyrics of the song or vice versa. A good example of this is 'Stan' by Eminem, arguably one of his best and most famous songs ever.  The song tells the story of a person named Stanley "Stan" Mitchell who claims to be the biggest fan of Eminem. Stan writes a plethora of letters to Eminem; with each verse he becomes gradually more obsessed with him, and when there is no reply he becomes progressively angrier. He finally creates a voice recording of himself driving his car into a lake, with his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk, as shown in the lyrics:

"So this is my cassette I'm sending you, I hope you hear it. I'm in the car right now, doing 90 on the freeway. Hey Slim, I drank a fifth of vodka, you dare me to drive? See Slim... (Stan's girlfriend screams from the trunk) Shut up, b*ch! I'm trying to talk! Hey Slim, that's my girlfriend screaming in the trunk. But I didn't slit her throat, I just tied her up. See, I ain't like you, 'cause if she suffocates, she'll suffer more, then she'll die too. Well, gotta go, I'm almost at the bridge now... Oh, shit! I forgot! How am I supposed to send this sh*t out?! (car tires squeal, followed by the sounds of the car crashing through the bridge's railing and falling into the river below)"

The first three verses are delivered by Eminem as Stan while the fourth verse is Eminem as himself attempting to write to Stan and reason with the troubled young man, only to realize that he had already heard about Stan's death on the news. Eminem is rapping as Stan as he is writing the letters, as shown in sync with the video.

Another example of this theory is the song 'Lamborghini' by KSI. The lyrics in this song are heavily based around JJ aka KSI rapping extensively about owning a Lamborghini Aventador. The music video, like the lyrics suggest is him driving around and ultimately showing off his car.

Another element to Goodwin's theory is that the music video in question will usually portray conventions of that genre. A very good example of this is the video for Kendrick Lamar's 'mA.A.d city'. Growing up in Compton surrounded by gang culture, even witnessing the murder of his own cousin at the age of 7, Kendrick Lamar's music is heavily based and influenced by his early life in Compton, despite him never getting in trouble and being one of the most humble and down to earth rappers there are. The video for this song is an accurate representation of the gang culture which occurs not just in Compton, but all around the USA. This obviously backs Goodwin's theory, as drugs and guns are stereotypes and conventions associated with rap music.

Another example of this part of Goodwin's theory is 'California Gurls' by Katy Perry. This is a pop music video, which shows general conventions of a pop music video; a very catchy, upbeat track, and an artist found acting in a very sexual and seductive manor. This is as much of a marketing strategy as it is all about the music. Because Katy Perry is a very attractive woman, if she is to act very seductive, that alone is enough to attract a very large audience to not only the song, but perhaps anything else Katy Perry happens to be endorsing. This is the case with most pop videos which have a female lead/main character.

Conventions of Pop

There are many conventions to the genre of pop music. One of the most noticeable, and popular, is the fact that the artists in question are wearing the most popular clothes and brands. 'Pop' music comes from the word popular, so this explains the get-up of the artists, but also the set; stereotypically a mansion or a luxury lifestyle house. Our culture today is mainly focused around the genre of 'Pop', with shows such as 'X Factor' and 'Britain's Got Talent'. Although its not just music shows which portray pop, as variety shows like BGT and various dance shows which seem to almost mimic the 'poppy' choreography within the pop music videos.

Another not so much a convention, but something that happens much too often in pop music, is ghost writers and the singers not actually writing their own music, and just singing it and being used to be sold as an 'image' or 'brand'. A ghost writer is someone who writes material for someone else who is the named author. A big example of this is Britney Spears, as she never wrote any of her music and was just used to sing the songs, as she was a very attractive young woman, who would attract a rather large audience. Throughout the world of pop, there are, in my opinion, too many 'artists' who use ghost writers. Even the most influential artists such as Justin Bieber, Drake and Kanye West have used a ghost writer at some point or another.

A very popular and important part of the pop music genre is the image that an artist gives off. By this, I mean that a lot of artists, particularly female, will act very sexually or seductively in their music videos, knowing that this kind of behaviour will attract a large audience. Current artists tend to dress in a provocative way to portray a sexual atmosphere.

*Pictures from top to bottom - The X Factor, Drake, Katy Perry*

Conventions of Hip-Hop

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop rap music, is a music genre developed in the United States by inner-city African Americans in the 1970s which consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, which is a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted.

Conventions

There are so many different styles of hip-hop and rap, but pretty much all of them carry the same, or very similar conventions. Throughout a lot of hip-hop videos, the artists is generally dressed very lavishly, in expensive designer clothing, and wearing loads of 'ice' (Diamonds and chains). A lot of rappers brag about having such wealth, and being able to afford such a lifestyle, but not all of them, even though it is subtly implied. A lot of people, because of this, associate rappers with being so self-centred and having such big ego's. Although the main reason they do this is because they have come from such poor backgrounds, usually in heavily deprived areas riddled with heavy gang and drug culture, so when they break through with such revenues it comes to no surprise they would want to brag, almost as a 'Started From the Bottom Now We Here' notion.

Another convention of hip-hop music, which I lightly touched on before, is that of gang and drug culture. In a lot of hip-hop/rap songs, you will find that a lot of the artists brag about doing drugs, being associated with gang crimes and even doing time in prison. The general consensus of this is that most people think that they are saying these things to 'sound hard' and act like top dog. People don't believe what they are saying in this instance as they think with them being celebrities and icons to most people, they wouldn't dare do anything illegal. In fact, a lot of todays rappers have indeed done prison time, or have been heavily involved in such cultures. For example, most recently the up and coming rapper 'XXXTentacion' was recently released from prison on charges for home invasion and battery with a firearm. Also, in a recent interview, Kendrick Lamar was asked about such culture, and even though he is a very humble person and never served prison time, he admits to witnessing several murders as a young child. A lot of these incidents can heavily influence some rapper's songs, if not albums and their entire careers.

*Photos from top to bottom - Birdman and Lil Wayne, XXXTentacion, Kendrick Lamar*