Group 4 Advanced Portfolio: Comparing Music Video Genres

The two genres I will be comparing and contrasting, is Indie Rock and Pop. The Indie Rock video I will be looking at is Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor and the Pop music video I will be comparing it to is The Wanted - Glad You Came.

The Arctic Monkeys video is a typical Rock video as it is purely performance based. The whole video shows the band performing live.

There are no links between lyrics and visuals as the video is just the band performing so the lyrics don't really relate to the visuals.

Long shot of band

Camera shots in this video include a long shot at the beginning which introduces the band, the video and the genre of music. We can tell the genre of music from the opening shot as it features the band with their instruments such as drums and guitars. This automatically tells the audience that its a Rock based music video. Another typical camera shot used in Rock videos includes the close up shot of the guitar. This emphasis the Rock element and tells the audience that they play their own instruments.

Extreme close up of singers face
during perfomance

Another camera shot used is the close up of the lead singer's face as he sings. This portrays the emotion and 'passionate' feeling to the audience. In a few of the shots we can also see a band member in the foreground as well as someone in the background. The lighting in this video is also quite dark which again is a typical trait of the rock genre.

Singer in foreground with
drummer in background

Party scene

The Wanted's 'Glad You Came' video is very different to Arctic Monkeys. This is mainly because of the genre of music. The Wanted are a Pop based group which means the video includes many more conventions of a Pop video.

Beach scene

This video has a fragmented structure as it shows different shots quickly throughout the video but they're not necessarily in the right order. At the beginning we see different scenes flash on the screen to the beat of the music. These shots include beach scenes, party and club scenes. The club and party scenes include flashing bright lights and people dancing which again, are typical aspects seen in many Pop videos.

From only the first few shots, we can tell that the video represents a holiday.

Throughout the video, other scenes include the band performing and singing to the camera.

Band at the beginning of video

Similarly to Arctic Monkeys video, 'Glad You Came' also features a shot of the band at the beginning of the video which allows the audience to be introduced to the band.

The Wanted's 'Glad You Came' video has a lot more happening in the video than the Arctic Monkeys 'Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor'. The different scenes in the 'Glad You Came' video is typical of a Pop video as there are many different scenes and scenarios. Whereas the Arctic Monkeys video is just performace based therefore there is only one scenario and no cuts to different scenes.

A similarity between the two very different videos is that at the beginning text appears with the band's name and the name of the song.