Music Genre Mood Board

To help me understand the codes and conventions of different genres, I decided to create mood boards for the genres of music videos I am most interested. This will help me see if there are any consistencies in terms of their general aesthetic. I used a variety of different artists and music videos from each genre to gain the best understanding possible.

                                       

First of all, I decided to look at country. After looking at the mood board, I realised that the general colour scheme throughout the videos were greens, browns and reds. This was because of the setting used in most of the videos. They were often outside in green locations or inside wooden barns and buildings which created this colour scheme. Also, in terms of props throughout the videos, there were a lot of tractors, cowboy hats and wooden guitars used, which are all related to the countryside. In terms of characters in the videos, there was a consistency in terms of the artists were present but were nearly always accompanied by other characters. The other characters were typically dancing, socialising or playing instruments along with the artist.

When I looked at the indie mood board, there was an obvious low key colour scheme using blues and blacks. Low key lighting with spotlights and black lights were also commonly used to conform to the mysterious tone that was created around the indie artists. There were also filters used commonly through the videos. 

There was a mixture of videos with just live performance of the artist and with a live performance and then a narrative accompanying the song. When there was a narrative, it wasn’t a typical love story, there were often semiotics used to give connotations and act as symbolism for certain events. This was the most complex genre in terms of narrative.

The pop mood board was the most varied in terms of colour schemes. Many vibrant colours were used to make the videos seem more lively to accompany the music. The artist was also the main feature of each video; there were no significant narratives. Instead of this, in nearly every video there was a dance routine or some sort of dancing. In terms of costume, it was either simple ‘every day’ costumes or it was unique and at times controversial.

R&B was the most controversial genre in terms of narratives. In all the videos, women were sexualised and wore highly revealing costumes. When the artist was male, the females were represented as dependant and obsessed with the male characters and when the artist was female, she had a male ‘chasing’ after her. The lighting and colour schemes were low key and used a lot of blacks, whites and blues to create a sense of intrigue around the artists.

How has this helped me?
This has helped me as I now understand the general aesthetic between the genres. This means when I decide the genre I want to create a music video for, I have a better idea of what props, colour schemes, lighting and characters I should use.