Genre Theory

Genre in this context refers to the kind or type of the music video. Each genre has its own set of characteristics which are recognised and identified by the audience. This is reproduced again and again, in every music video.

This is a music video by Ed Sheeran, of the acoustic genre, which uses many typical acoustic conventions. A complex narrative is normally used so the audience can relate to emotions and feelings, and makes the song meaningful. In this particular acoustic song, the homeless girl is sleeping with men, in return for drugs. This is a typical real life story which is what genre is all about. 


Another convention is black and white effects. The video above shows this, but also the video below. Black and white effects create a sense of time and create emotion, as there is no colour to distract the eye from the subject.

Audiences like genres as it develops an understanding where parts of expectations will be fulfilled. For example, they will expect to see a love story because of my song choice, but they also want to see a sense of dissatisfaction; the break up scene and sad ending of my music video will supply this. 

Producers of generic narratives depend on immediate communication with the audience, so I have communicated with my target audience as much as possible before I go on to create my music video. 

However, there are sometimes problems with defining a genre, but I don't think that this will be a problem with my video as I have looked into many different ways in which my acoustic genre can be identified.