Music conventions and genre
September 28, 2017A convention is the expected style and 'formula' of a specific media product. The expected features are different for different star images and audiences.
There are 3 main parts of a music video convention:
- generic ingredients - eg. elements of a video
- generic style - eg. visuals, camera, editing, colour scheme, costume, lighting
- generic structure - eg. how the video is arranged (performance/narrative)
Genres develop over time, depending on what's popular and what works well (basically what makes money). An analogy of this is biological evolution, where the successful 'mutations' become more and more common in the product population eg. boybands.
Styles are copied because they are more likely to be hired by record companies trying to make a big profit, so invest less in original, indie acts rather than what they know works because it's less risky. They have survived for a reason though; because people like them, so there's nothing wrong with these conventions staying around. Sony, Warner Music, and Universal account for 90% of records sold, so they choose who to hire and what kind of music is out there.
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