What Are the Generic Codes and Conventions of Hip Hop and Rock Music Videos?

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What are the generic codes and conventions of Hip Hop and Rock music videos? Music videos have been around since 1981, when our televisions first starting showing visual expressions of music. This was through the first music television network and it was called MTV. For the first time, viewers had the opportunity to visualise some of their favourite songs in the format of a video where before, their only alternative was to attend a concert. This allowed young people to see a world not as readily available before and in today’s contemporary society with new music genre’s increasing; there has also been an increasing demand for music videos to accompany it. In this essay I will be analysing music videos in one of music’s two most popular genres – Hip Hop and Rock. These two genres differ and this translates not only musically but visually. I am to investigate whether these two genres fit the stereotypical criteria of the media, or whether they have been portrayed in the wrong way -hypothesis the stereotypical view (elaborate) -i have used both primary and secondary research in order to carry out this investigation -focus group (use quotes) - Hip hop music videos have always been a controversial topic amongst audiences as it is a genre that is known to exaggerate and encourage a patriarchal way of living which many female audiences would be opposed to. This mainly consists of wealth, power and beautiful women which are the goals of most youth in today’s contemporary society – in other words: The American dream. There are several codes and conventions that make up this genre of music video and my main example of this is ‘In Da Club’ by 50 Cent. [Image 2] In 50 Cent’s music video he directly addresses the audience with his lyrics. In hip hop music videos there is a frequent use of low angled/close up shots. The sole purpose of this is to demonstrate the power

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