In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Use/Develop/Challenge? In both my music video and ancillary tasks, I have used, developed and challenged conventions found in professional media productions of the rap genre. It was a target of mine from the offset, to insure my campaign was not stereotypical. As a result of which, a lot of my video does not follow the stereotypical pattern of most music videos, and I sell it on the difference. Naturally, it was important to use and follow certain conventions, as I still had to make a product ready for the market.

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory In my video, I have applied ‘Andrew Goodwin’s’ theory. Alike his theory, my music video does follow certain genre characteristics, in the way the video comes across as a performance, and by mis-en-scene used throughout the video. Rap video’s stereotypically flaunt the rappers wealth, and make the viewer aspire to the lifestyle conveyed in the videos. In almost every video it is done in more than one way, whether it’s through mis-en-scene, lyrically or even through camera work, the rappers like to make themselves appear superior. Examples of which can be found in many of JAY Z’s productions, in his song ‘Big Pimpin’, he uses mis- en-scene in the video, as he’s seen rapping on a huge yacht with loads of women around him. Similar uses of mis-en-scene are seen in ‘Mann ft. 50 Cent – Buzzin’, as they’re seen resting on an extremely expensive ‘Low riders’ car, with several modifications. By following the same conventions in own production, I attempted to mock the transparent problems in the rap culture, being the ego problems and un-realistic representation of lifestyles they live. To do this, I used mis-en-scene. Instead of the expensive sports car, I recorded my subject sitting on a small red toy car. Which still used mis-en-scene to portray lifestyle, but made mockery of the genre. Not once in the video was my subject seen with anyone else, which was an attempt to bring out the lonely lifestyle lived by rappers, and highlight the problems that come with wealth, being that identifying real friends is more difficult.

Hypodermic needle/ Laura Mulveys gaze However, contrary to what Goodwin’s theory suggests, in my video there is no voyeuristic treatment of the female body in my video. There isn’t even a female in my video, which goes against what the theory suggests. My video can also be seen to go against ‘Laura Mulveys’ gaze theory, which is normally a very present theory in stereotypical rap videos. The second theory I have used in my video, is the hypodermic needle theory. The theory suggests my video can influence the audience directly, and any ideas will be ‘Injected’ directly into my audience, and be understood completely. The idea that conventional rap videos are ridiculous, and the many flaws in the genre was the idea I attempted to convey in my video. I did this through using and defying conventions at the same time. Stereotypically, the rapper would be abroad, on a beach, on a boat. Whereas my subject is in rural England. Stereotypically rappers would be seen throwing money about, wearing expensive jewellery, whereas mine is seen wearing normal clothing. Both of which were used to give a much more realistic idea of the culture, create a much more personal link with the viewer and make mockery of the current culture, and attempt to inject a new meaning/way of doing it.  

Digipak In my Digital, I used several common conventions to help sell the product. Like Magazine adverts from ‘Rihanna’ and ‘The kings of Leon’, I have included a title, social media links and a website. All of which are important to help sell the product. The title informs the viewer of what it is they’re seeing, and both social media links and web link are a way of pushing the product to a further audience, using the rapidly growing media of today. The idea being, viewers will search the links, and interact with the further information on the album. They can share, like or even comment on it, which helps push it out to a further audience. However, I defied the stereotypical convention of showing the rappers face in the advert. In many rappers album covers/advertisements, including ‘A$AP ROCKY’, ‘Tyler the creator’ and ‘Drake’. Yet again, by doing this I’m going against the stereotype, and opening a new method of doing things within the genre. On the CD Cover, I used several conventions, as it became too risky challenging to many forms of conventions within my production. I had already challenged enough throughout the production, and I felt all the conventions on the CD casing were too important to miss out. As a result of which, I used a conventional title, Used a barcode, copyright information and followed a colour scheme throughout.