Chosen Genre

POP SOUL

The music genre that my group and have chosen to do a music video for is 'POP SOUL'

Pop-Soul is soul music that has been polished slightly and given a commercially viable, crossover production. The vocals are still raw, but the material and the sound of the record could easily fit onto pop radio stations' playlists. Motown was the pioneering label of pop-soul, and through much of the '60s, it was one of the most popular pop music genres. In the '70s, pop-soul became slicker, and it eventually metamorphosed into disco.

Examples of Pop-Soul artists are;

Duffy

Natasha Bedingfield

and Maroon 5

Pop soul is consdiered to be music that sounds ' black 'and urban that is sung by white people.

The main Generic Characteristics of the Pop Soul Genre are emotional ballads being sung by the artist and the music video's are often serious to back up the lyrics that are usually about heart break or difficult relationships. Pop soul videos are often narrative to portray the visual element that the lyrics in the songs depict

The iconography The Pop soul genre uses are extravagant images that can sometimes be over exaggerated or it can be very simple and basic depending the nature of the song.

For example here is a screen shot from Duffy's Music video - Warwick Avenue

The tempo of this song is slow and has a sad feeling as the song is about break-up. The lighting is dull , grey and pale to represent the negative emotions reflected through the lyrics.

The video is very simple and hasn't got a lot of change of scenery as she is shown in the back of a cab contemplating throughout the journey as she lip-synch's the lyrics.

Where as Natasha Bedingfield's Music Video for - Unwritten

The tempo is upbeat and fast, the song sounds bright and positive corresponding to the happy and optimistic lyrics in song. The lighting is done with a natural light from rays of sunshine and Natasha is often smiling whilst singing the lyrics in the video.

One similarity between both videos is that the Artists are shown singing the lyrics in the video with variations of close-up's to powerfully display the emotion that they are trying to get across in the song with their facial expressions.