Conventions of chosen genre

Genre is a critical tool that helped us study text and audience responses by dividing them into categories based on common elements. The category I have chosen is folk/acoustic.

The artist I have chosen is Ben Howard, a British acoustic folk artist that portrays the genre of folk within his music videos by using the conventions of the genre. The archetypes of folk/acoustic are that the genre is traditional, peaceful, historical and cultural and that the artist has a big beard and wears farmer clothes but this is not the case minus a rare few who stick to the archetypes.

The conventions of a folk/acoustic music video would include a variety of different important elements. In all the folk/acoustic music videos I have researched I have come across some similar and conventions and also some dynamic conventions. A lot of the videos include nature, either shot in some woodlands, fields, valleys or forest areas as the mise en scene of nature is a convention within the genre. The mise en scene of the environment compliments the peaceful music as the artist is trying to make his music as beautiful and peaceful as what we see in the music video. Another convention is the artist on their own with their guitar, so we see their performance, their image and their talent; this is the case in Ben Howard- Empty corridors as it’s just the artist playing his guitar. In the videos they use iconographic images all to do with nature, for example trees and flowing rivers, this is a common convention as it gives the video an image and keeps to the stereotype and genre.

Ben Howard uses the conventions of folk/acoustic in his music videos by having iconographic images in them and including the typical and important elements of himself performing, creating an image for himself and his genre. Not all folk/acoustic artists stick to the original conventions but try and be a little more dynamic and do something a little different then the ordinary folk/acoustic music video, for example, Marcus Fosters- I was Broken music video includes him performing in front of a white screen as well as a woman looking in to the camera, this may sound a little to simple but with the song and lyrics you understand what it’s all about and it works, and that’s why sometimes breaking the boundaries from conventions can lead to something completely different and potentially more appealing to their audiences.

Another convention is the theme of the music video, a lot of folk/acoustic music video goes on the theme of romance or past memories, this can mean the songs are about loss, love, happiness or death and in the music videos use relevant mise en scene and conventions such as the iconographic images to portray the theme of the song and in some cases use literal representation. An example of this would be “Ben Howard- Keep your head up” as this video represents the fun he’s having with his friends. But of course they don’t have to literal representation to the song or lyrics or theme, its how the audience portray the genre that the most important factor.

The image of the folk/acoustic artist is another convention as it’s an important element to any artist of any genre. The image of the artists is very natural, scruffy and more relaxed then your average artists. Mainstream artists are usually dressed up in designer clothes with £400 haircuts but that’s not folk/acoustic music is about and their image is like their music, natural and very relaxed, their music, image and music videos compliment each other in the sense that their very similar and all go by the same conventions of the genre. A prime example of this would be the artist I have chosen Ben Howard, he’s very relaxed in all his approaches and I believe it works to his advantage.

The music form of the video’s are usually abstract and performance, not many of them have a narrative, the audience get the opportunity to use their imagination and create a story for themselves about their romance or past memories. They are abstract because of the use of iconographic images and random shot selection; it’s more of a video diary. And it’s performance as in most if not all of them we see the artist performing with or without an instrument. A good example of these conventions would be acoustic artist Nathaniel Ratecliff- Shroud, in this video we see the conventions of performance and abstract as we him perform and we see past memories again like a video diary.

The whole folk/acoustic genre is very natural not just with the conventions of the music videos but with the music videos. I think the music influences you to think of nature and just relax and that’s what I believe they want you to do whilst watching their music videos, just sit back relax and enjoy. All the conventions of the music video in this genre are what the audience who enjoy this genre want to see, they want the full experience, they want to see performance and iconographic images, they want to be able to use their minds and gain emotional and visual pleasure. As for the artist the conventions are to attract the audiences and of course the main purpose to promote their star persona.