Textual Analysis: Genre Reflects Music Videos

Music videos restrict the creativity of some musical genres and that it can be seen that genres are a negative impact on the musical genre. Hartley (1994) has argued that 'genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the potential meaning of a given text'. This is evident with the types of videos that fit with the genres of the songs the video is about. An example of this will be the music video to Boiler & LVNDSCAPE's song 'Ragga' where the song is a sub-genre to house being 'tropical house' so the video will usually contain pathetic fallacy to depict positivity which is designed to make people happy and relaxed. Most of the tropical house music videos are mostly filmed on beaches. This is more to keep in the suit of the summer feels and the summer themed tune which the song promotes. It will sometimes contain intertextual references to the artist in the video usually DJing on stage or secretively by having the producer as one of the extras you see for 1 or 2 seconds in the middle of the video.
The song will use the effect of a handheld camera shot with various different camera angles because the narrative of the music video is a couple obviously on a holiday in the Caribbean somewhere. In addition to this, it follows the woman around as she is the key figure in the video.



Hodge & Kress (1988) also agrees with Hartley's theory. 'control the behaviour of producers of such texts, and the expectations of potential consumers'. This shows that people will also become used to the types of conventions shown in the music videos to the specific genre of music they will listen to. This is also shown by the use of the same conventions in most music videos which are of the sub-genre 'tropical house'. (Eklo - You and Me has similar conventions to the song above.)

The song You and Me contains similar conventions as Ragga, it is evident as in both videos, it involves summery weather, beaches and a narrative of a fun day out with a woman as the main focus of the video.




However, Fiske (1987) asserts that generic conventions 'embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular'. This indicates that genre is key to tell us about how music videos should be or shouldn't be created to the specific genre. It also shows that genre tells us about what is currently popular and what isn't popular; the amount of music videos that have been released follow the suit of a genre or a sub-genre, this is by the popularity of the videos depending on what genre it is and that shows the way in which we consume music videos will depend on the conventions of the video in relation to the genre of the song it is representing.
This is evident in the two music videos as both Ragga and You and Me use the same conventions in the music video as both songs are of the same sub-genre 'tropical house' and both songs contain similar sounds and effects which give it the specific sub-genre category.