Genre theory case study

Black sheep – The choice is yours

• Low angle and close up shots are generically used in hip hop music video in order to establish the artist’s dominance over the audience. Low angles imply power as they portray the artist as above the audience looking down upon them. Close ups are used to imply status as it portrays the artist as important enough to have frames of their own.

• Examples of low angle and close up shots within other hip hop music videos. Intertextual references to other hip hop videos showing it as a generic convention.

Das EFX – They want EFX

Pharcyde- Drop

Krs-One, Mad Lion, Doug E Fresh, Fat Joe, Smif-N-Wessun & Jeru D&D All Star

• Hip hop videos tend to contain a crowd around performers dancing or jumping in time with the beat, implying they enjoy the song. This gives the performer credibility showing that the song is popular which makes it easier for the audience to identify with the music and also enjoy the song. The crowd signify the artist’s power and implies status as people follow them.

Black sheep – The choice is yours

Das EFX- Real hip hop

Immortal Technique & Akir - Apocalypse/Treason

• Costumes that are generic for hip hop music videos vary depending on the style and aim of performer. However a common convention is Sporting attire such as basketball shirts in order to connote strength. However members of the zulu nation, a hip hop awareness group trying to spread multiculturalism by wearing various attire from various different alternative cultures. Members of the zulu nation challenge dominant generic conventions by wearing clothes that are not expected or generic, although this has become generic for some artists itself with many artists wanting to spread awareness rather than violence. Another common convention is wealthy looking jewellery of which this music video challenges by not containing any.

Zulu nation: Over sized clothing or Sporting attire, basketball shirts:Black

sheep- The choice is yours

• In hip hop videos, there is usually some link between the music and lyrics. In most, it is as simple as showing an object they are referring to. This is because narrative is not a huge thing in hip hop videos, so the need for these objects to appear links the video to the song. This needs to happen because otherwise the video is seen as irrelevant. The music video is like a “tangled ball” (Barthes) showing both sides of their argument, whilst leaving lyrics and visuals open to interpretation by minimizing narrative and giving the audience the choice.

When “cat” is used in the rhyme the visuals quickly cut to a cat, strengthening the link between the sound and visuals.

The performers within the video create a strong link between lyrics visuals (Goodwin) by giving the audience the choice, “ you can get with this or you can get with that.” the performers tear down the negative stimuli within the visuals from the screen, bringing it back to the music and mixing, strengthening the link whilst challenging conventions, attempting to break off the music from the associated stereotypes, promoting a positive state of mind.

- cuts to documentary evidence of racism, image of KKK is ripped up, then there is a cut to a black and white image of news photograph of a race crime, this is used in order to show the artists political ideology and their objection to racism

• It is generic for hip hop artists to work closely with other artists and promote each others work. although this is not present easily in the visuals, it is mentioned within the lyrics, “black sheep of the native” & “brothers in the jungle, cousins on the quest”. Native referring to the hip hop collective, native tongues formed in the 80’s closely tied to the universal Zulu nation and the promotion of positive, good nature lyrics. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Tongues) Brothers in the jungle referring to “The Jungle Brothers” and on the quest referring to “A Tribe Called Quest”, showing how hip hop is spread through social convergence and generically artists tend to promote one and other. Although this is not visible in the visuals, Black Sheep- The choice is yours, still highlights it as a generic convention of which the genre probably relies on.

• Voyeuristic treatment of the female body is generally used extensively within the genre of hip-hop. This is because the wider audience of hip hop is male, therefore the ‘male gaze theory’ is applied to music video in order to maintain male viewer’s interest and to attract more people into the audience. (According to Wikipedia: Gaze is a psychoanalytical term brought into popular usage by Jacques Lacan to describe the anxious state that comes with the awareness that one can be viewed. The psychological effect, Lacan argues, is that the subject loses a degree of autonomy upon realizing that he or she is a visible object.) In terms of media it refers to how an audience views people being presented. Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘Male Gaze’ in 1975 claiming that in film, audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. This Relegates women to the status of objects. Sexualisation of the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised is used in order to widen audiences and gain “fans” through the women within the video rather than purely the music. This convention is used briefly in the opening scene of this music video in order to initially captivate male viewers. However the lyrics in the opening repeat “this or that” in order to challenge this convention, posing the audience the question, the music or the women in order to promote a more progressive message towards to convention of voyeurism within hip hop, similar to the links made between lyrics and visuals later on within the video (Goodwin).

• Black sheep- ‘The choice is yours’ relies on the concept of binary opposition proposing within visuals opposites, as above a violent “shooter”, contrasted with them tearing it down with a bright white background connoting innocence. Claude Levis Strauss argued “constant creation of conflict/ opposition drives narrative” which is evident within this video with the lack of storytelling made up by constant conflict against the negative stereotypes people typically associate with the music.

• Hip hop music videos tend to promote the artist as a whole rather than just the song. The focus is generally on the status, reputation and message of the performer, this is achieved through links between lyrics and visuals.

• Intextuality is used a lot within hip hop music videos• Voyeuristic treatment of the female body is common

within the genre of hip hop, but varies with progressive and regressive representations of generic conventions depending on the artist/ labels aim.

This video and Goodwin’s theory• This video ties in well with Goodwin's theory of narrative as for one, the music

video demonstrates many genre characteristics as shown, while challenging the less progressive characteristics.

• The video relies on a strong relationship between the lyrics and the visuals which are used to illustrate, amplify or contradict the artists message and the typical genre characteristics. The music is also related to the visuals with the video edited so that the crowd jumps in time with the music, as well as cuts from one shot to the next in time with the beat, a characteristic generic of hip-hop music.

• The record of label of artists tend to require many close up’s of the artists throughout videos in order to establish an image as well as a sound, which is evident throughout this video.

• There is often intertextual references to other productions/ artist which is evident within this video and previously discussed.

Gunther Kress’s explanation of genre

• Gunther Kress defines genre as “a kind of text that derives its form from the structure of a (frequently repeated) social occasion, with its characteristic participants and their purpose. This explanation explains the formulation of this music video in terms of how it reflects generic conventions, and the repetition of a social occasion, with the social occasion being the performance of the artist which is repeated although varied throughout nearly all performance hip hop music videos. This also argues that the characteristic conventions used within the video are used in order to fulfil the needs of the audience who are used to the repetition of the “formula” which creates a music video that they like.