Evaluation Question:1

How do your products use or challenge conventions and how do they represent social groups and issues?

Codes and Conventions refer to the symbols and signs which are used to create meaning of any media product. The codes and conventions helps the audiences to understand the meaning and concepts behind any media product. With the following codes and conventions of any media products the audiences recognize and identify different products. It in other words categorizes media products according to their respected genre.

Since we were doing Acoustic-Pop so me and my group members we all, researched about the codes and conventions of our assigned genre. We followed some of the codes and conventions of acoustic-pop but on the other hand also broke a lot the traditional genre boundaries

Codes and Conventions.

Many theorists believe that genre characteristics construct a music video and that way the audiences can expect what are they going to see in a music video. The genre we chose for our music video Acoustic-Pop, this genre mainly revolves around love, loss, and heartbreak the narrative of these music videos automatically connects with the similar feelings and emotions. While researching in detail about our genre, we found out that Acoustic-Pop music videos usually are soft both in terms of vocals and the environment ,one can connect with the lyrics and the music and relate to it on a personal level, usually people in these videos who are suffering from heartbreak would be seen having sad and gloomy expressions and the environment would also give a very gloomy vibe, whereas a person in love would be shown a little happy and would have a smile on his face while singing.

Codes and Conventions followed

Location

While researching we went through a lot of Acoustic-Pop music videos,and singing by the bonfire was seen in a lot of music videos,inspired by that we also added a bonfire scene in our music video.

Our music video

No Voyeurism

Like many of the acoustic music videos we also did not add any woman who is used for visual pleasure or is the target of the male gaze, but however we only required a woman in just one scene,and as you can see she is dressed modestly and is not showing of any skin, which happens in most of the acoustic music videos where women;singers mostly, are dressed properly without exposing too much skin

Breaking/Challenging Conventions

Looking at our music video overall it can be seen that we challenged of conventions that Acoustic-Pop has like:-

The location

Acoustic Songs are usually performed in proper studios with proper equipment,like mics and what not,where as our video is way more casual and the artist is seen singing in a park and by the lake,there is no band or proper professional setup like acoustic music videos usually have.

Our music video

Song Meaning

Narrative

An acoustic music video usually shows a plot in which the audiences can ,understand the lyrics, and experience the feelings,emotions and the vibes that the song gives and can relate to it on a personal level. We followed this convention, of acoustic pop and our music video is a mix of both narrative and performance.

An acoustic music video mostly revolves around a love,loss and heartbreak where either 2 people are lovers, a person is experiencing one sided love, or either the person is sad and going through a heartbreak or sometimes acoustic videos have no narrative at all and most videos are only performance based. We thought of putting our own spin on the narrative of our music video,so we decided to break this convention and thought of making a narrative about a young boy who returns to his old home after many years,and when he takes a walk around the house he would re call his old days , but still we did not break all the conventions the social issue that we used in our music video was how in today's time, youngsters and kids move out of there homes ,some with their families and some without them to achieve their goals,education,. We wanted to portray the image of how people feel when they come back to a place where they spent all their childhood and made some really good memories. Our music video would not only bring nostalgic vibes for the older, and mature audiences who are working outside their hometown and are away from their families, this video will also relate to people to who migrate from rural to urban areas.

Visuals of our Music Video vs Other Acoustic Music Videos

Our music video

Theories applied in my Music Video

Andrew Goodwin

We were very keen on the relations with the lyrics and the visuals which can also be seen in some parts of our music video if not through out.

We also kept an eye out for the relation between the music and visuals . While editing we made sure that the visuals match the beats and rhythm of the song. And also the scenes change as the beat and the pitch of the music changes.

Record labels demand close ups of the artists which we definitely have used in our video,which helps to form the star image of the artist.

Then comes emphasis on looking., we did not follow this convention, as our artist did not make any eye contact with the camera.

Sven E Carlson

Binary opposites was the whole thing on which our whole music video was based on through out our music video Past vs Present and Childhood vs Adulthood is seen,our whole video was based on this theory.

Music Videos broken down into different types like performance, narrative,conceptual and hybrid. These types are also then further divided into 3 parts like electronic shaman television bard, and commercial exhibitionist. Our video is a hybrid as it consists of both performance and narrative.But however our video does not come under the other 3 categories

Michael Shore

Shore believed that music videos recycled styles that contained information overload,meaning a lot of stuff was inserted in one music video of a few minutes,however we did not do such thing in our music video we kept everything pretty simple so the audiences do not confuse themselves.

Also we did not use recycled style,we tried to keep the video as original as we could we did not use many inter textual references for any scene we shot.

Archer talked about the relationship between the narrative and the performance. Our music video definitely comes under this theory, our performance and narrative go one by one in the music video

The camerawork plays a very important part in making videos. We used plenty of angles and shots to make the video unique and fun for the audiences to watch.

Steve Archer

Laura Mulvey

There was no male gaze, sexualisation and objectification of any woman as we did not require any female for our music video we only needed one female,but she was not objectified as she was shown as a modest mother who does not show skin and wear proper clothes paired with a big shawl that covers her head.

Social Groups

Age - Our target audience was from the age of 19-30. We made sure that our artists would be that eligible to attract the audience of the target audience. Our concept and idea was nostalgia and the feelings one has when he goes back to the place where he spent his childhood and made some beautiful memories, we wanted the mature audience to connect with the song. The expressions and acting of the artist would make it easier for the audience to emotionally connect with the music video and relate to their childhood days.

Gender - We targeted both females and males. We wanted to focus on how people leave the place where they once had some amazing memories of their childhood, they leave that place later on and when they come back they start recalling all their memories which relates to both boys and girls , we wanted to show the childhood and memories ,meaning nostalgia.This way people who have left their homes would be able to feel the emotion more deeply and truly connect with the song.