Dance-pop

Dance-pop is a subgenre of pop music that is dance-orientated, it originated in the early 1980's. Developing from post-disco and synthpop, it is generally up-tempo music intended for clubs with the intention of being dance-able but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Dance-pop music is generally characterized by strong beats with easy, uncomplicated song structures which are generally more similar to pop music than the more free-form dance genre, with an emphasis on melody as well as catchy tunes.

Dance-pop's stylistic origins are post-disco, synthpop, house, hip hop, R&B and pop.

Dance music videos usually contain handheld camerawork, rarely static shots, this adds to the action and excitment of the video. The variety of camera shots and angles is very high, although close-ups of the lead singers are usually used. The mise-en-scene often includes a party type scene such as a night club/disco scenes and lots of flashing lights. They include people dancing (street dance, break dance, raving, cheer leading). Most include teenage stereotypes such as alcohol, drugs and high-end branded clothing. Summer scenes like the beach or swimming pools are also used to add to the party atmosphere. The costumes are usually voyeuristic and would predominantly contain good looking people to fit in with an aesthetic. The video would also have high key lighting to go with the high energy, happy, party feel.

5 Seconds of Summer 30H!3 Avril Lavigne Backstreet Boys Beyoncé The Black Eyed Peas Calvin Harris Carly Rae Jepsen Cheryl Cole Daft Punk David Guetta Demi Lovato Empire of the Sun Ellie Goulding Enrique Iglesias Icona Pop Jason Derulo Jessie J Justin Timberlake Karmin Katy Perry

Ke$ha Lady Gaga Little Mix Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Maroon 5 Michael Jackson Miley Cyrus NSYNC P!nk Rita Ora Robbie Williams Robin Thicke S Club TLC Taylor Swift The Pussycat Dolls The Saturday The Wanted The Ting Tings Will.i.am

Alternative Rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock that emerged from indie music and became widely popular by the 1990's. It is defined by 'alternative' as it doesn't follow the mainstream rock genre, shown by mostly distorted guitar sound, transgressive lyrics and generally defiant attitude.

It's subgenres include Britpop, Emo, Grunge and Indie rock/pop among others. It's stylistic origins come from Punk rock, Post-punk, New wave and Hardcore punk.

The conventions of an alternative rock music video would be close-ups of the band/ band members, long shots of the whole band and focus on instruments. They are usually edited to cut between performance and narrative, synced with the beats of the music and contain a large amount of shots. The mise-en-scene includes the bands performance onstage or an outdoor location, low key lighting and dressed is casual, dark clothes.


Here is a bank of alternative bands:

The 1975 (Alternative rock, indie rock, indie pop, power pop, new wave) Arctic Monkeys (Indie rock, psychedelic rock) All Time Low (pop punk) Avril Lavigne (Pop punk, pop rock, alternative rock) alt-J (Indie rock, art rock, experimental rock, electronic) Blink-182 (Pop punk, alternative rock, skate punk) Bowling for soup (Pop punk, alternative rock, power pop, comedy rock) Coldplay (Alternative rock, post-Britpop, pop rock) Evanescence (Alternative rock) Fall Out Boy (Pop punk, alternative rock) The Fray (Pop rock) Florence and the Machine (Indie rock, indie pop, baroque pop, art rock) Gorillaz (Alternative rock, alternative hip hop, trip hop, indie rock, electronical) Goo Goo Dolls (Rock, alternative rock, pop rock, punk rock) Imagine Dragons (Alternative rock) Kasabian (Rock, alternative rock, indie rock) The Killers (Alternative rock, post-punk revival, new wave) Kaiser Chiefs (Indie rock, post-punk revival, new wave) Kings of Leon (Alternative rock, garage rock, southern rock) Kodaline (Indie rock, alternative rock, folk rock) The Kooks (Indie rock, britpop, alternative rock, indie pop) Linkin Park (Alternative rock, alternative metal, rap rock)

Lower Than Atlantis (Melodic hardcore, post-hardcore, alternative rock, indie rock) The Lumineers (Indie folk, folk rock, Americana) Maroon 5 (Pop rock, pop, funk rock) Mumford & Sons (Folk rock, indie folk) Neon Trees (Pop rock, new wave, alternative rock) Nivana (Alternative rock, grunge) OneRepublic (Pop rock, alternative rock) Panic! at the Disco (Pop punk, alternative rock, pop rock) Paramore (Alternative rock, pop punk, emo) Plain White T's (Pop punk, power pop, emo) Ramones (Punk rock) Secondhand Serenade (Acoustic rock, emo, alternative rock, pop rock Simple Plan (Pop punk, alternative rock, pop rock) The Smiths (Alternative rock, indie pop) The Stone Roses (Alternative rock, jangle pop) Thirty Seconds to Mars (Alternative rock) Train (Rock, pop rock, country rock) Two Door Cinema Club (Indie rock, dance-punk) The Vaccines (Indie rock, post-punk revival) The White Stripes (Alternative rock, garage rock, punk blues) Wheatus (Alternative rock, pop rock, power pop) Vampire Weekend (Indie pop) You Me At Six (Alternative rock, pop rock, post-hardcore)

After effects for videos

It's no longer uncommon for a music video to use Chromakey and after effects to boost the impact of the video. Singer Katy Perry seems to be a huge green screen fan as seen in some of her recent music videos.

Green screening (Chromakey) allows the subject to be removed from the background so the background can be replaced. This allows a wider variety of locations for a video if working on a lower budget but does not come without its difficulties. Lighting is very important when working with green screens beacause you want the whole of the green screen to be lit otherwise your new background when you replace the green will have shadows. It is also recommended that you light the subject the same as it's new background if you are going for a realistic affect.

Other ways of enhancing a video is layering up effects, as displayed in the Dark Horse video.
This .GIF shows how the editor has added the lightning effect to improve the video. This clip also shows use of animation within the video.

I think post-production editing with after effects and animations will increase among music videos as it makes them more interesting and adds a level of artistic creativity within the video.

Melanie Martinez - Dollhouse (music video)

Whilst looking through YouTube I came upon this music video of 'Dollhouse' by Melanie Martinez and I really enjoyed the concept. This video creates verisimilitude by creating a fantasy world in which the 'dolls' live. I particularly like the shot at 3:00 which combines the two worlds, most likely through green screen. This, along with the eye-line match shots, really makes the two worlds separate and emphasizes that the dolls are living in a dollhouse. (This makes the theme work otherwise they would just look like normal sized people, could be something to think about.)
This video also displays how a video director needs to think about the mise-en-scene to make a theme work. I also believe that the low-key lighting empowers the darkness of the lyrics in the song.

Fish Tank - Case Study

Director by: Andrea Arnold
Year released: 2009
Production Company: BBC Films, UK Film Council, Limelight Communication, ContentFilm & Kasander Film Company

Cast:
Katie Jarvis as Mia Williams
Michael Fassbender as Connor O'Reily
Kierston Wareing as Joanne Williams
Sydney Mary Nash as Keira O'Reily
Rebecca Griffiths as Tyler Williams
Harry Treadaway as Billy
Sarah Bayes as Keely

Box Office: 
Opening weekend - $32,619
Gross - $373,060

Fish Tank features a young actress (Katie Jarvis) who had no previous acting experience. She was spotted by the directors casting assistant arguing with her boyfriend at a train station. Jarvis' character within the film is Mia, a vulnerable and unstable teenager growing up in a deprived area. The film includes social realism as it was shot in real locations know for crime in the area. One of the representations would be how Tyler,  Mia's little sister contrasts with Connor's daughter Kiera. Kiera has been brought up in a much better environment than Tyler, she can play on a safe street and gets to enjoy her childhood. Tyler, however has seen to be growing up way faster than a child should as she is exposed to much harsher content.
Throughout the film we as the audience tend to be more sympathetic towards Mia than we do her mother. This is because we expect her mother to be responsible for her children and look after them but Joanne Williams comes across as far more wayward than the audience would like, meaning both of the young girls are lacking a good role model.