Research into genres

Pop Music

Pop is an abbreviation of the word 'popular'. It aims to appeal to a wide audience rather than to a particular type of audience. Pop music normally appeals to a younger audience and also tends to get very large audiences when doing concerts. It is the type of music which is often most played on the radio and is very well known culturally. Most pop music intends to encourage dancing or uses 'dance-orientated beats and rhythms'. Pop songs hold a structure which is, the song normally lasts about three and a half minutes and there is a verse-chorus with some hooks inbetween. The lyrics of a pop song tend to focus on love and relationships, partying or money. The lyrics are deliberately chosen to appeal to everyone hence the large audience.

Pop musicians include Justin Bieber, Example and Pixie Lott

Pixie Lott follows the conventions of a Pop song in this video. The video lasts just under three and a half minutes but it is a song about partying. The lyrics are very catchy and easy to remember and it follows the verse-chorus typicality.

Indie

Indie is the abbreviation of ‘Independent Music’. Indie is a term used to describe independence and a do-it-yourself approach to music. Quite regularly indie music tends to include an acoustic guitar which tends to help towards the independent sound. Indie music is normally introduced on large websites such as ‘Facebook’, ‘MySpace’ and ‘Sound Cloud’ as it means they can produce their music and publish it at a low cost. If given the chance most independent bands will choose to go to a major label and this gives them a breakthrough. Artists such as Ed Sheeran, Jamie T and The Kooks have managed to breakthrough in the past.

The Kooks had only been together as a group for three months before they were found and signed by Virgin Records. They were spotted at the Brighton Free But Festival in 2005. They said 'We were really young, we'd been together like two or three months, so we really didn't want to sign. But then we thought it's a really good opportunity and Virgin seemed like really cool people - they just seemed to really understand where we were coming from'.

R&B

R&B is an abbreviation of Rhythm and blues and is a genre of popular African American music. It began in the 1940s and now it is used to refer to electric blues, gospel and soul music. In the 1980s a newer type of R&B has developed and is now known as contemporary R&B. The mainstream use of R&B is usually referring to the comtemporary R&B music.

Beyonce and Rihanna are examples of R&B singers.

I think that in this song Rihanna catches contemporary R&B well. The background music is typical of the Rhythm and Blues genre but she has brought it up to date and popular with the lyrics she has chosen to use. The beat is typical of the African American genre but she has made it appeal to a large audience with the lyrics and upbeatness held within it.

Rock

Rock music is a popular type of music which has been constantly developing since the 1960s. Rock music normally includes an electric guitar, electric bass guitar and some drums. Typically, rock normally is a 'song-based music with a verse-chorus form'. The genre is constantly becoming more diverse and the lyrics normally concentrate on love, sex, rebellion, social concerns and life styles. Rock music is traditionally in a 4/4 meter with a repetitive drumming back beat. Punk Rock has also become very popular in the past 10 years. Sum 41, Foo Fighters and Blink 182 are good examples of rock bands.

The Foo Fighters are showing some typicality's of the Rock genre here as there is an electric guitar, an electric bass guitar and a drum kit in their song. If you listen to the lyrics it seems to also follow the genres rule as it is a song about rebellion in some form and also maybe social concerns after researching into the meaning of the song.

Hip-Hop/Rap

Hip Hop is a type of music which expresses feelings and artistic culture. It originated in the African-American and Latino communities around the 1970s. The 'Four Pillars' of hip hop culture are MCins, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing. Another element is beatboxing.
Rap refers to 'spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics'. Rapping can be done over a beat or without any music. Today, the terms 'rap' and 'rapping' are very closely associated with hip hop music. Eminem and Nicki Minaj are good examples of Hip-Hop/Rap artists.

Eminem portrays the Hip-Hop/Rap conventions well in this video. Rap songs are normally used to express feelings and he is quite obviously expressing some of his feelings within this music video. Rapping has been done over a beat in this song. Eminem is a very big rapper and he regularly expresses his feelings through his music.