RnB Conventions

Costume In RnB music videos, males are commonly dressed in minimal clothing with trousers or shorts but

usually topless as a common target audience that they are trying to market is young/teenage girls. Advertising is also used during these male topless scenes as the camera may close up and zoom on

the belt or particular type of jeans that the artist is wearing as an extra form of marketing or to symbolise their wealth.

Tattoos are a common feature on a male RnB artist and these can be a symbol of different things. They can symbolise, power, emotion, strength or can just be used as a fashion statement.

Jewellery is more subtle than in other genres such as hip hop however, we may still be able to identify a watch, a belt or earrings to feature this idea of fashion.

Women in RnB videos are similar in the fact that they wear minimal amounts of clothing. They show their stomachs to prove that they are an object of desire to the males who are singing.

Hair is always styled whilst make-up is bold and defined to look as glamorous as possible. Heels are worn often to elongate their legs to add to this desirable element whilst some may wear

trainers for choreographed dances that they perform. Women wear big earrings and necklaces however, this can be an element of challenging conventions

as it is normally the males who wear this subtle jewellery.

Iconography RnB videos made by males tend to be sexual as the lyrics are often provocative as in the video for

‘take me down’ by Chris Brown as the video also focuses on him being topless to please a young, female audience. He does this purposely to grab their attention.

The females in the videos also conform to this convention of sexual affiliation as they wear minimal clothing as discussed and dance sensually towards the opposite sex in the video. This can please a male audience who are watching the video and will therefore be attracted to it from another point of view. This is specific for heterosexual males. This convention can be broken however, as females can been seen with more control and wearing much more clothing to prove that the production can be focussed more on the music than the characters in it which is different to modern RnB. An example of this is Beyoncé in her video for ‘Irreplaceable’.

Pace of RnB videos RnB videos can be slow or fast which then tells the audience what sort of message the video is trying

to convey. The slow songs tend to revolve around love with much more meaningful lyrics however, the faster paced videos are more focussed on parties and symbolism of wealth.

The fast songs may involve elements of rap whilst the videos feature lots of flashy cars and bright colours to portray the success that has been made out of the music industry. Lighting is commonly artificial to create this effect and will tend to feature women wearing minimal clothing as an object of desire. A location could be a club with people drinking champagne to again portray this idea of wealth and success. An example of this type of video is Chris Brown ft Tyga- Ayo.

Slower songs from RnB tend to follow more of a narrative structure to convey a message or a story to the audience. A co-star may then be used alongside the artist to achieve this. Lots of natural lighting may be used to create a sense of reality and to portray a more emotional idea. They are pictured using grey scale or sepia to soften up the video and create this emotion. The songs may be about falling out of love and breaking up which would reduce the amount of nudity and sexuality in the video. An example is Burn by Usher.