Music Genres

POPPOp music is designed to appeal to a mass audience.

Pop songs last between 2-5 minutes and consist of melodic and catchy sounds, constructed in a traditional verse/chorus structure. The genre tends to deal with ‘safe’ subject matters: like

love and heartbreak.

However...Pop music, simply means popular music and has varied traits and can incorporate many genres; Elvis, The Beatles, Eminem, Kiss, Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, Roy Orbison, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie and Lady Gaga, could all have been described as Pop at one point. So, if you want to identify genre traits, you must look at sub genres...

Pop Sub-Genres

Britpop Originating from Britain, with bands such as; Oasis, Blur and Pulp, Britpop typically has more mature lyrics and deals with heavier subject matters, while packaging itself with the typical easy listening of pop. The bands usually dress casually, void of glam. It tackles the troubles of life in Britain, such as; poverty, class differences and depression.

J-Pop/K-PopJapan and South Korea is home to a type of pop

that relies on bright colours, young attractive women - put together as

a group by music executives - and catchy songs. It appeals to the

lowest-common-denominator and,

generally, consists of shallow lyrics. The songs

are always upbeat and always optimistic.

Modern Western PopModern popular artists are typically

bound to one of the three labels by a 360 degree contract, they are

encouraged to play it ‘safe’, lyrically and musically by replicating what has already been proven to sell. Musicians

like Taylor Swift sing about teenage love and other female artists sing

about female empowerment. Meanwhile, boy bands like One

Direction must look handsome and female artists are encouraged to

appear sexually appealing.

Britpop - Music videos

The video by supergrass shows the optimistic side of britpop, with the bright weather and colours. The bed connotes a laid back peaceful atmosphere and the constant movement of the band shows the energetic spirit of youth, which matches the energetic life of the song.

The video by pulp shows a pessimistic outlook behind an optimistic cover. The scene in the club looks free and fun, but the characters movements are rigid, the scene appears fake; the woman’s romanticised view of common life is not real, instead it is taken up by poverty and depression.

Covers and websites

The cover represents the theme of class, often tackled in Britpop, half the family are black & white; while the others are in colour, highlighting a difference in class.

The pop-art inspired appearance catches the eye. In pop, it’s a competition for sales so the cover needs to stand out the most on the shelf to compete. Popular music is designed to reach the most amount of people, so the cover steers away from offensive imagery.

The website for blur is slick and well designed. In the background a video plays showing the band on tour, with their music playing over the top , which can be easily paused if the user desires. In the centre a news bulletin shares the latest information on the band, while above that, the sections of the site are clearly defined. In the top left corner, symbols of the band’s social media profiles are present and in the top right a search bar lies for swift navigation. The home page holds a lot of information, but the minimalist design makes it easily digestible.

ROCK Originating in the 50s with

Rock’n’Roll, the genre primarily focuses on electric guitars, but has become heavily diversified - with many sub-genres and many offshoot genres, with their own genres, such as; Punk and Heavy Metal.

Rock’n’rollSteeped in 50’s Americana, musicians dressed in suits and kept neat and tidy hair cuts;such as the pompadour. Musicians like Elvis and Bill Haley influenced the look of Rock’n’Roll. Rock’n’Roll revival bands like The Tom Cats and Showaddywaddy took influence from the look, but added bright colours and flare.

BritishInvasion

Influenced by Rock’n’roll bands, The Beatles opened the gates to America for British bands. Their long hair sparked controversy, but The Rollings Stones, the kinks and the Who, would introduce the stereotypical Rock style; with messy hair and clothes, and a debauched lifestyle. Their music and dance moves were highly sexualized and their guitars became phallic symbols of sexual liberation.

Glam RockFlamboyant dress, extravagant hair and heavy make-up; the uniform glam rock. Arising in the 70’s with Marc Bolan and David Bowie, these artists are known for their androgynous look, which is has become a stereotype of the genre. The performance and it’s appearance became just as important as the music.

Alternative RockAn attempt to strip down rock back down to basics; make it solely about music rather than the fashion and style. Alt-rock emerged from the underground, partly as a counter culture to glam and mainstream music. The musicians dressed casually in everyday cloths. Bands like the Pixies pioneered the genre while artists like Radiohead and Nirvana developed it.

Prog RockProg rock is known for its wild stage production, with bands such as genesis and Yes, the performers incorporate fantasy dress into their style

Music videos - Rock

‘Just’ by Radiohead is a performance based video, inter-cut with a narrative based sequence. This is a common style of video - particularly for rock bands - as it shows the musicians playing their instruments, selling the image of the rock star. Meanwhile, the plot driven sequence gives the viewer a story to follow: keeping their interest alive.

‘Seven Nation Army’ by the White Stripes is in a constant zoom, the speed the imagery flies at the viewer is linked with the speed of the baseline and beat of the music - the visuals should always match the music. It’s a creative way to present the performers as rock stars by having them perform, yet it isn’t shown in a jaded way.

Websites and Covers

The cover for Nirvana's debut album “Bleach” is shot in negative and shows the band ‘Rocking out’, it sells the rock star lifestyle, playing hard and fast. THis lifestyle is often what the covers of rock cD’s try to embody - as it’s what the consumer expects. This can also be seen in ‘London Calling’ by the class; which itself harkens back to Elvis and the early days of Rock’n’roll.

The Rolling stones’ websit is designed in with the colour scheme red, the bands colour. Red is both an aggressive and sexual colour; which are the two foundations of RoCk. The website also takes advantage of modern technology by providing an App to download, allowing fans to keep up-to-date easily and efficiently.

HEAVY METAL An offshoot from Rock, it diversified into it’s own genre, with it’s heavier sound.

Imagery

Since the genre's inception, going back to Black Sabbath, the genre has had

prominent themes of war, death, the occult and satan. Performers keep long hair and dress in dark colours, sometimes utilizing makeup or masks to enhance their satanic

look.

Thrash MetalThrash metal is a sub-genre known for its incredibly fast pace,with bands such as: Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica and Megadeath. The genre deals with themes of death. The musicians dress casually and often grow long hair, like in other subgenres of metal.

Death/Black MetalTwo similar sub-genres,

black metal stereotypically deals with the occult and satan; while Death metal,

lyrically explores death and gore. Black metal

musicians tend to dress in makeup and occult

fashion, while death metal artists dress more

casually. Vader is an influential Death metal

band, Venom is a famous Black Metal group.

Stoner metal

A lot slower in pace than other genres of

metal, it holds a grovier beat. Other

similar, slow yet heavy genres include

Doom and Sludge metal. Bands in this genre:The Melvins, Electric Wizard and

Black Sabbath.

Gothic MetalGothic metal focuses on creating a dark, or macabre atmosphere in it’s music. The musicians tend to dress in black, victorian inspired outfits and wear dark makeup, hence the association with the Goth scene. Bands include: Within Temptation, Nightwish, Cradle of Filth and Paradise Lost.

Power Metal

This genre is defined by its clean clean, more

traditional, vocal delivery; while it deals with subjects

such as war - like other metal sub-genres - many

bands chose to sing about fantasy and Tolkien inspired

worlds: Pirate metal is an off-shoot of this. Many

artists dress in medieval attire to match the

fantastical elements of the genre. Bands include: Primal Fear, Alestorm,

Sabaton and Kamelot.

Nu-metal Nu-metal fuses metal with

other genres, such as funk and hip-hop,

musicians in this genre appear visually different from other metal bands, many looking more like

eminem than Motorhead. Examples include: Korn,

Slipknot, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Papa Roach,

Rage Against the Machine and Hollywood

Undead.

Music videos - Heavy Metal

‘Never say my name’ by Vader uses intertextuality to reference the death of Christ, this plays into the genre trope of critiquing religion - it’s common for death metal music videos to include religious iconography like this.

‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica uses flashes that match the pace of the music to layer performance and narrative based footage seamlessly. The effect creates a nightmarish atmosphere.

Covers and websites

The cover for Megadeth's ‘Peace sells… but who’s buying?” shows a a UN devastated by war, in some twisted piece of irony. It is a criticism of war - a common theme in metal. The colour scheme is a deep red, an aggressive colour representing violence. In addition the cover shows the band's mascot, this is prevalent feature for the cover designs of many metal bands, as seen with Iron Maiden and Motorhead.

In accompaniment with the various, well laid out, social media tabs, the site also has the option to create an account with the site. This allows fans to keep up to date with the latest news and offers available.