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Compare and contrast the use of genre conventions in two music video texts, one made between 1980-1900 and the other from 2000 Pearl Murphy Lavay Smith- ‘Blue Skies’ 1996 Parov Stelar- ‘Demon Dance’ 2000 First selecting my texts, Blue skies by Lavay smith in 1996 and Demon Dance by Parov Stelar in 2000, I initially thought both fell into the genre category of swing. This is especially apparent with the definition of swing being ‘a lively rhythm suitable for dancing’. However, Parov Stelar’s genre is electronic-swing, which is a contemporary music genre and was established in the early 1990. I chose swing/electro-swing as my genre as I enjoy listening to it the most compared to other genres such as pop, R&B and jazz. I mostly listen to electro-swing as it’s up beat and lyrical. Most upbeat songs usually have no lyrics and are very electronic and repetitive such as drum and base. I chose Parov Stelar because they are one of my favourite artists, earlier this year I went to their concert and grew on me even more. I found the artist Lavay Smith on the Internet when researching ‘swing music videos’ via youtube. The genre of swing compared to electro-swing are quite different, I thought it would be interesting to fully compare and contrast the key media concept of genre and test if there’s an innovation within the swing genre when looking at videos from different time periods of the more dated to a contemporary video. As well as this, David Buckingham recognises that a genre changes over time, as “genre is a constant process of negotiation and change”. I agree with this quote by Buckingham because the two songs I have chosen are very different even though they share the same genre of ‘swing’. The director of Blue Skies is called Chris Siebert. The producer of Demon dance is called Marcus Fuereder. The director makes the identity of the song’s subject correlate to the promotional text. Swing was most popular in the 1950s however swing music video weren’t common and was generally watched when live. Chris Siebert managed to direct the video as if it was mise en scene filmed in the 1950s. In the music video they were all dressed in vintage fifties clothing. The band makes the viewer feel like they have gone back in time to the 1950s. Siebert achieved this as he helped the audience recognise the genre by including the codes and conventions and mise-en-scene such as, a traditional jazz/swing band, a small room, an audience energetically swing dancing, instruments, 50s dress code including swing dresses and suits. Due to this the video looks more like a performance rather than a music video as it mostly shows the band performing. Near the beginning of the music video at (0:12-3:48) it showed a low angle shot of the band members playing their instruments. This makes the audience engaged as they feel like they are in the room with them; this is a good achievement from Siebert. The first part of the music video is in sepia toned, which resembles the effect of aging relating to the swing era. In Parov Stelar’s music video it portrays a slightly different theme including electro called electro-swing. Instead of capturing a live performance, Marcus Fuereder has put together many different random clips relating to every-day people listening to music. It’s also essential to the construction of the video as the narrative and mise-en-scene revolve around the melody of the music. In the video it consist of street dancers (0:25-3:31), smokers (2:15-3:31) and arcade games (0:40-3:31). Fuereder communicates with the audience straight away due to the characters costumes as some are dressed in modern-day clothing of denim jeans and a classic striped t-shirt (0:26-3:31). However when the video shows a clip of which I think to believe is Fuereder, is dressed as a rockstar/jazz singer from the late 1900s. His hair is jelled back, wearing signature sunglasses, smoking a cigarette. In this particular clip (2:43-3:31) Fuereder sings the words, which shows it’s a diegetic sound. The colours presented in Blue Skies begin in sepia then at (0:01-1:01) the video changes colour to black and white. Siebert did this to make the vender concentrate on the singer and lyrics when in a different colour. When Lavay Smith sings it tells the audience that the lyrics are coming from her this reinforces the change of colour. Siebert films a close-up of her face and lips whilst singing this appeals to the male gaze as she lies in a provocative position on a bed, showing a lot of skin. As Lavay Smith is presented in black and white this shows she is the protagonist as she is the leading singer and her name is included in the title of the band. On the other hand, Marcus Fuereder best known as Parov Stelar includes a few colours due to it being a related contemporary genre not an old-fashioned 1950s genre. Through out the video is consists of a similar filter to Blue Skies of a grey scale. Interestingly, the video mostly only shows colour when a picture is related to technology such as an arcade game (0:41-3:31). Demon Dance doesn’t have a protagonist in the video as it shows many clips of different narratives related to music. The Demon Dance video itself is ironic as it represents many different clips that doesn’t show a linear story instead the clips and music represent a dreamy and melodic feeling whilst at the same time the music wants to make you dance. A good example of a ‘dreamy and melodic feeling’ is (0:52-3:31) showing twin girls swaying romantically in a glamorous way listening the diegetic sound. I questioned each of my classmates who don’t listen to this genre and every one agreed that this genre encourages you to dance. This is due to ‘electro’ being a contemporary genre, which includes a fast tempo melody. Most people in my class listen to mainstream/stereotypical music aimed for the younger generation such as pop, dub-step and house. All these genres have a coherent related beat, which is why they are appealed to electro-sing. Parov Stelar wanted to achieve a mysterious and magical music video, this relates to the crow, which was a constant motif through out the video. The crow is a spiritual animal, which associates with life mysteries and magic. Grippingly, if a ‘crow has chosen you as your spirit or totem animal, it supports you in developing…connection with life’s magic’. This reinforces the idea that the crow represented in video shows a magical connection to the people and the song in the video. This shows a spiritual and meaningful vision and opinion to the music video. The lyrics in Blue skies relate to the video genre as the video displays romance and happiness. This relates to the lyrics, “bluebirds singing at me”. ‘Bluebird’ in America means a male bird; this suggests a male is passionately singing to Lavay Smith in a romantic way. This reinforces why she lies on a bed desirably because she has a love interest. Music videos demonstraite genre characteristics, Andrew Goodwin’s Theory can be applied here as the music video includes Voyeurism, as Lavay Smith engages her audience sexually when lying down on the bed and you do not see a male doing that, only women. Goodwin’s theory also includes a relationship between lyrics and visuals and music and visuals this relates to the mise en sense. However, Goodwin argues that the female performer is frequently objectified for display purposes. Lavay Smith isn’t portrayed in this way. In addition Goodwin’s theory includes intertexual reference, which this video doesn’t comprise. In Demon Dance there are only a few lyrics, which aren’t in English. This is because Parov Stelar is an Austrian musician. There are only a few words said because electro music commonly doesn’t include lyrics. Parov Stelar used a lot of editing Techniques. A consistent theme was the use special effects and computer graphics. For example the background has been added on to the music video, you can see this clearly as it looks like a tea coloured graphic drawing. Parov Stelar did this to make the video look unrealistic and almost theatrical through out the video. Furthermore, Parov Stelar used many different short time shots, as there were many different shots to include. One of the shorts shots lasted three seconds long (0:34-3:31). However, in Blue Skies Siebert used a very minimum amount of editing techniques as the video only consists of two different colours of sepia and monochrome. The music video consists primarly of a live performance but through this way, Siebert began to create work, which had alternative cinematography with an abstract style. Although, similarly to Parov Stelar the majority of the shots in Blue Skies are at least three seconds long. The video is constructed of medium shots that sometimes lead onto close-up shots (1:20-3:48) of Lavay Smith. The main difference in Parov Stelar is how the video uses more of a variety of shot types including, medium, long, close-up and wide angles of the band. As well as this, there’s more action like parachuting and includes relatively long shots which have been edited to be a faster tempo. This speed relates to the electronic sequence. This is more common in modern, contemporary music videos. There are numerous shots, which cut in time with the beat (1:04-3:31) to further the slick style of the video. It is true that Parov Stelar’s video is contemporary such as his genre. This is particularly highlighted through its technical ideas and editing. Compared to Blue Skies this video is far more interesting as it conveys an old-fashioned elegance within a contemporary style, which is shown through out the video. This shows a good representation of a ‘new wave of swing’. From analysing two swing related music texts, its clear that the conventions differ considerably and will continue to do so as swing evolves. It is key to note that for my particular videos it is partly due to the particular differences within the sub-genre. Another component significantly affecting the differences are the dates of the release and the context of change in the media and technology, and that one text was a contemporary reconstruction of the past. At the start of this essay, I knew the texts would be different. It is therefore not a surprise that the contrasts exceed the similarities, which is often common with the genre texts from different historical periods. Bibliography Websites ‘Swing definition’ - http://www.dictionary.com/browse/swing Genre Theory by David Buckingham - http://www.slideshare.net/nicolanais/genre-theory-2012-lesson-2-12614262 YouTube Clips ‘Lavay Smith – Blue Skies’, YouTube, 30th November 2011 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBFA5GvAA78 ‘Parov Stelar – Demon Dance’, YouTube, 23rd March 2015 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP2jz7UCiig ‘Swing music videos’ - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=swing+music+videos Articles Article about crows, http://www.spiritanimal.info/crow-spirit-animal/ ‘Andrew Goodwins Theory’, http://iffimedia.blogspot.co.uk/p/andrew-goodwins-theory.html Books David Buckingham, ‘Education, Entertainment and Learning in the Home’ 2003

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