Conventions of my music video genre

In order to complete my music video I need to choose a song that fits a genre that can easily be interpreted following conventions. The artist I have chosen to mimic in my music video is Ellie Goulding an English singer/songwriter who is currently extremely popular in the music industry. Her music fits into a range of different genres from indie folk to country pop, Making it harder for me to follow conventions when there are so many depending on the genre. For the particular song I have chosen, the genre is more folktronica a mixture of folk music and electronica. It includes elements of acoustic instruments incorporated with hip hop rhythms creating a new sound and overall genre. It’s not one of the many popular well known genres and it was only originally founded as a genre in the noughties. Due to the fact this genre isn’t massively known, the conventions and codes are hard to identify and from research I have found that they’re not that easy to familiarise with even in this day and age. Conventionally folktronica music has a sound that significantly highlights string instruments in an upbeat manner. The rareness of this genre means that artists like Ellie Goulding herself have more of a chance to shine to audiences, as it is something different.

 Looking at existing music videos from artists that fit into the folktronica category has shown me that one of the conventions is the way the artist appears to be represented. They are never portrayed in a bold way and almost always appear in neutral colouring. The music videos are never complicated and always seem to be quite simple showing mainly the artist performing in a way that wouldn’t be offensive to the audience. By this I mean this style of music isn’t offensive and can be seen as cool, calm and collected. Music videos such as Imogen Heap ‘Hide and Seek’ and the original video by Ellie Goulding to ‘The Writer’ show the artist in similar ways making me think this may be a convention. They both appear against a pale background with numerous shots of their face’s, which is understandably not representative of all folktronica music videos but gives a general over view to how the artists are represented and how they want to appear to audiences. In my music video I will aim to do something similar with my artist but will try my best to do something completely original showing my own interpretation of the lyrics.

(Imogen Heap 'Hide and Seek' - This video has similar elements as the original video of my chosen song. Her style is very much the same as my artist.)

Some of the conventions I know will be appropriate in order of making the genre recognisable are,  a mise- en- scene of nature, a neutral perspective of the artist and a story that can easily be interpreted. For example many videos I have looked at under the same genre show a mise-en-scene of nature with scenes including trees, fields and flowers this may be down to the fact that most folktronica songs are slow and acoustic and have a sense of calmness about them so the iconography of nature relates with this. Also as the songs are known to be slower the lyrics could be seen to have more of an impact on the audience and so having a music video that resembles the style of song is more likely to have an effect.

As stated previously Ellie Goulding had an indie folk side to her with could also come across in this song. It is a similar genre to folktronica making me think the conventions may be similar. Indie Folk music videos are more artistic and creative then most music genres. They can appear subtle often with animations, patterns, colour and saturation used in small doses. There isn’t direct narrative or relationship between the image and lyrics. However there is a relationship between music and image the artist may be shown performing but not throughout the full video. Imagery plays an important part of the video taking away the shine from the artist. This resembles music videos under the genre of folktronica therefore showing they practically have the same conventions.