What are the current trends in music videos?

What are the current trends in music videos? 

Current trends:

• 
  Every decade represents a new type of trend in the music industry. From just listening to music to then being able to create a specific genre. Music industry's tends like boomboxes, cassette tapes, and the new waves and pop hits mark the '80's' era, while CDs and Apple itunes playing boy and girl band phenomenon and catchy one hit wonders were part of the trends of the '90s and into the early 2000s.
• At this current moment, the songs that are being produced are based on love and relationships and big current events that are taking place for example 'black lives matter'. Implying that the majority of music videos currently have a strong message or narrative storyline. 

Through my research the top four most watched music videos are:

-Despacito, Sorry, Uptown funk and Sugar.

• Actually three of these music videos are all based on their story and all have girls in them. These artists are all male, this links to sexualizing women in their music videos as they present this is their music videos to their audiences through attracting and flirting with them.

• However, music videos are changing, as new artists/brands come into the spotlight and being known are creating new branches and new conventions to each genre. For example Lewis Capaldi a very well know male artist who sings about his heartbreak whereas Olivia Rodrigo sings about her breakup and break break from a girls perspective. This is showing us how any artist will express their feelings how they want to and how they chose to express themselves.

• Independent artists use a various of channels to try get to the larger audiences. Now days it only takes one great hit, signature dance move or other popular sweeps and trends to make them 'go viral'. Once they have gained this popularity and the spotlight it makes it a lot easier from them continue sharing there music through multiple social media platforms which grows there fanbase. There is also always music collaborations, which have a huge impact on artists. They can then tow the line between genres, especially with the country and pop genre. These current days there are more and more collaborations going on then ever. This is due to there door always being open for artists to come together and pair up, slowly dipping into a genre performed well.
• Music industry trends are very similar over the years, this is due to the audiences liking some sort of familiar sounds that they already listen to and enjoy as well as they completely new sounds.

Pop Genre:

Motifs:

A decorative image or design, especially repeated one forming a pattern. Some common motifs that are seen in the pop genre music videos include:

Ritual celebration- Partying, hose or on beach, black artists usually being happy, white artists usually being demonic. For example Madonna use this motif in her music 'like a prayer' as a choir seen rejoicing which is visual evidence in a church sinfying the choir members are of black origin backing this theory.

Body Fragnetation- The artists deliberately use camera shots that are close p of there body parts to excite some viewers. A big example of this is the artist Nicki Manji uses this motif in her music in one of her most famous videos which is super base which there are multiple shot of her body parts like her legs and her eyes which keeps the audience interested and wanting to watch.

Horror- commonly in horror there is controversy as this could upset certain regions due to references to hell and satan in their videos. This consists of extreme violence, hell, war or satan. I would like to point out that Disturbia by Rihanna in her music video is a example of this motif as this shows the artist and dancers using demonic gestures. As in this specific music video there look possessed to emphasise her message which is another scary place.

Symbols:

• In the electronic dance genre, artists usually try to link up their lyrics and beat s=rythem to the music video, by using specific props. There usually link to make sure that the video has some relevance to there music.
• Animals by Martin garrix tries to link this genre with what he is showing in the music video with visual images, such as speakers he is holding above his head, the big hall room signifying a rave or a club. The flashing different colour lights which are the conventions and codes for this genre.

representation:

• A few example of different social groups and how they get represented in Electronic dance genre music.
• Females are represented in different ways to make male artists as they are sexualized by wearing revealing clothes but also as it does fit the vibe perfectly however makes it more male attention.
• Men are represented to be more dominant and talented. This is as they are usually the ones performing and djing to the crowd, showing them to be more dominant with women. This is in order to seem more admirable to other men and makes them want aprie something similar to them
• Different ethnicities and different cultures are often represented in music videos, however they rarely challenge the stereotypes and representations which are shown. Different ethnicities in music videos can also be used to show insight to that culture so that the audiences can gain a better understanding on different cultures.

Thematic:

• Music videos are based around a single idea or concept which are usually obscure and can be surreal for an audience. The unusual themes of music videos can draw a lot of attention and sometimes these music videos can create attention on social media and increase the popularity of the song itself. For an example of this is Elastic Heart music video by Sia this particular music videos has drawn a lot of attention due to its obscure content in the video and also the main stars in it are very well known Shia LaBeouf and Maddie Ziegler. There is also a lot of repetitions the music video to help keep the running theme throughout the music video.

Use of parody:

• Parody music or musical parody, concludes copying or changing existing musical ideas or lyrics, there also copying the particular style of a composer or performer, even a general style of music.
• Due to electronic dance being related to events and festivals, there very easy to create as well as bring the audience to want to be interested in as there are very easy to make fun and lively which helps them a lot in recreating the video with there own twist to it.