PITCH FOR POP!

The general target audience for pop videos is teenage girls…

• The pop genre appeals to teenage girls because the artist is usually somebody that they can consider a role model or feel that they can relate to. The songs that they sing can be inspiring to teenage girls…

• For example, in Katy Perry – Firework, she sings lyrics such as “you’re original, cannot be replaced,” and “maybe the reason why all the doors are closed, so you can open one that leads you to the perfect road.” These lyrics, and the narration of the video inspires young people to overcome their fears and insecurities. The song got to number 1 in the charts, possibly because of the inspiring meaning of the lyrics which made the audience want to download the song. This is an example of how Katy Perry has used her role model status to ‘speak out’ to the teenage audience and inspire them to feel good about themselves.

• One reason why boy bands and male artists such as One Direction and Justin Bieber are successful could because the lyrics of their songs are what ‘teenage girls want to hear.’ For example, in One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful, they sing the lyrics, “you don’t know you’re beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful,” and “you’re insecure, don’t know what for.” Teenage girls are stereotypically known to be insecure about the way that they look, so when their favourite boy band sings to them about being beautiful, it’s giving them a confidence boost. The song got to number 1 worldwide, so the lyrics obviously contributed to the success of the song, along with their boy band image and the catchy tune.

Conventions of Pop Videos. • Pop videos generally have a link between lyrics and visuals. For example, in

JLS – Beat Again, the lyrics are, “they’re telling me that my heart won’t beat again,” and the actions to these lyrics are the band doing a dance movement of a beating heart. A reason for this could be to make the audience remember the lyrics through the actions, but could also be to make the video relate to the lyrics, and make more sense for the audience. Although some may see this as ‘cheesy,’ a convention of pop videos is to be explicit, and this particular movement does just that.

• Another convention of pop videos is the element of love. Most pop songs are about love or heartbreak, probably so the song and the artist can relate to the teenage girl target audience. Most teenage girls have experienced love or heartbreak in some way and it may be comforting for them to hear that their favourite pop artist knows how they’re feeling because the lyrics of their songs can relate to them. For example, the narrative of, Justin Bieber – As Long As You Love Me video is a young couple trying to be together but are facing complications in their relationship. The couple in the video are portraying an average couple that audiences can relate to. They take photographs, go on bike rides and sneak out to be together without the love interests dad finding out. This can relate to teenage girls because it is either something that they have been through in someway or is something that they can imagine happening to them, especially with Justin Bieber.

• A mixture of both performance and narrative elements is also a convention of pop videos. An example of this is Demi Lovato – Made In The USA video. The narrative of this video is that a couple meet and fall in love, however they meet at a carnival where the artist is performing. This enhances both the performance and the narrative because at this particular moment in the video, both elements link in together. Pop videos show performance but they also tend to have a narrative to go with the lyrics and I think that this video does both effectively, as the artist’s talents are being showcased, but the narrative is still being told.

Why should we do pop? • Pop music is generally a light hearted and fun genre, and

it will be enjoyable for us to do. As we are teenage girls, (the demographic that pop is predominately focused on appealing to,) we already have opinions on what elements of pop music videos we find effective and appeal to us, so before we have even researched into our target audience, we will already have basic understanding of what needs to go into a pop music video, because we are the target audience.

• Pop music dominates the charts, it is the genre that is most frequently listened to. There are pop songs at the top of the charts, in the middle of the charts and at the bottom of the charts. Therefore, there are a lot of current examples and influences that we can use for our own music video.

• Filming a pop video will allow us to be creative with the special effects that we use. An example of a pop video where special effects were used is in Rihanna – Rude Boy. The use of bright colours and high key lighting, (which is another convention of pop videos) in this music video is entertaining and eye-catching for audiences. High key lighting emphasises the light-heartedness of the video and makes it look more fun – which is what pop music is about.

How will we find a balance between performance and narrative?

• An issue of pop videos that I have discovered through my research is that they tend have explicit meanings to them. This means that some elements of the videos are obvious and because of the lyrics of the song, audiences know what to expect from the video. For example in One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful, the lyrics are, “the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed.” As these lyrics are being sung, the actions to go with them is a girl flipping her hair. There is not much depth to pop music videos, and there are no implicit meanings that will allow the audience to think about the narrative, because they are watching the obvious…

• However, as we are making our own video, we can challenge this typical convention, which can allow us to be creative in the narrative. We can find a balance between performance and narrative by possibly taking influence from Demi Lovato – Made In The USA where the two characters in the video meet whilst the artist is performing.

• We can use the explicit lyrics in pop music to our advantage because they can be a basis for our video and we can develop our ideas from them, creating implicit meanings that will hopefully interest our audience through the balance of narrative and performance, because it is important that we include both in our video, as most pop videos do.

Suggestions for our own video. TAYLOR SWIFT.• Taylor Swift’s songs appeal to teenage girls as her lyrics are

truthful and girls feel like they can relate to them. Some of her lyrics are also quite explicit, so we should be able to find a basis for our video through them, sticking to pop video conventions, however, the lyrics of her songs can enable us to develop our ideas and create a video that has both explicit and implicit meanings…

• Love Story: “We were both young when I first saw you.” This lyric can allow us to use a convention of using young people in pop videos, however we can create implicit meanings through thinking of original ways the young characters can meet in the narrative of the video.

• You Belong With Me: “She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers.” The lyrics to this song centers around a high school romance. This can make it easier for the setting of our video, because if we are struggling to find a venue, then we could set some scenes in the school as this is something that teenage girls can definitely relate to. However, a majority of the scenes need to be shot outside of a school setting to make our video creative and less obvious. This again will allow us to think outside of the box in creating implicit meanings in our video.

• 22: “We’re happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time… Tonight’s the night when we forget about the deadlines.” These lyrics clearly show that Taylor understands how teenage girls feel. The narrative of this video is a group of girlfriends having fun. This is something that we could adapt and recreate. A ‘party’ setting will also give us an opportunity to incorporate both narrative and performance elements together.