R&P Post 3: Music genres that interest me

Genre is important for the key reasons of artist identity, allowing audiences to identify with different styles of music and categorise them and is important in marketing as genre will impact on how an artist is marketed. To help with our research for possible genres for our track I looked at my personal favourites.

Musical Theatre:

Famous Musicals

Musical Theatre is a key genre of music that I listen to as I love hearing all the different characters and the amount of story telling that there is. The first ever musical is considered to be The Black Crook which premiered in September 1866 and a range of musicals are still being created today alongside the continuation of favourites such as Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera. Musical Theatre songs do not tend to be released with music videos but instead are released in soundtrack form, in film versions or are performed live at events such as West End Live.

Jersey Boys at West End Live

Pop Punk:

I have recently become interested in this genre and have begun listening to artists such as the ones below:

(Clockwise from top left): All Time Low, McBusted, My Chemical Romance & Fall Out Boy

Pop-Punk music videos tend to be a blend of performance and narrative and use discontinuous editing to switch between. Examples of narrative and performance can be seen below:

A blend of performance and narrative in a song by Fall Out Boy

Timeline showing the creation of pop-punk and its relation to the mainstream

By blending the mainstream of pop and the more niche market of rock it allows for a wider audience base containing different demographics.

Rock:

(Clockwise from top left) Roxette, Phil Collins, Whitesnake & Bon Jovi

The main period of rock I am interested in is the 1980's and the main gratification for me is escapism as I can get lost in the music. The lyrics also play a key role, for example, in Phil Collins In The Air Tonight  and Roxette Listen to You Heart as they have clear emotive meanings and sometimes strong backstories behind them:

Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand
I've seen your face before my friend, but I don't know if you know who I am
Well I was there and I saw what you did, I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been
It's all been a pack of lies

Listen to your heart
when he's calling for you.
Listen to your heart
there's nothing else you can do.
I don't know where you're going
and I don't know why,
but listen to your heart
before you tell him goodbye.

From looking at my favourite genres it has highlighted to me the importance of mainstream and niche audiences. Therefore, the genre of our song is Synth pop which will allow us to tap into the mainstream but we will make our artist slightly rocky to widen the audience base. A definition of Synth pop can be seen below:

Wikipedia definition

The Wikipedia article goes on to explain how Synth pop has had a revival from the late 2000's to today through the success of artists such as Lady Gaga and Rihanna- which will benefit our new artist.

I will hopefully be able to incorporate different elements from my favourites genres in our music video such as:

• A mix of performance and narrative (Pop-Punk)
• Clear characterisation (Musical Theatre)
• The importance of lyrics and connoted imagery (Rock)