Trends in Music

 Current trends:

• Every decade represents a shift in the music industry, from the way we’re able to listen to music to the evolving genre of sounds. Music industry trends like boomboxes, cassette tapes, and the New Wave and pop hits mark the ‘80’s era, while CDs and Apple iTunes playing boy and girl band phenomenons and catchy one-hit wonders were part of the trend of the ‘90s and into the early 2000s. 
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  At the moment, songs are more based around love and relationships or events that are taking place such as Black Lives Matter. This means that majority of the music videos at the moment are being created with strong narratives and storylines as all the song lyrics have deeper meanings behind them.

• The four most watched music videos include: Despacito, Sorry, Uptown Funk and Sugar. 3 of these four music videos are all basing their storyline or music videos around girls. All of the songs are performed by men, which links to men sexualising girls in their music videos as they try and attract the younger male audience.

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  Music videos are changing, as new artist come to light they are creating new branches to each genre and helping expand narratives. For example, Oliva Rodigro song drivers license is showing a breakup from the girls perspective whereas Lewis Capaldi is showing break-up from a male perspective, these two examples are showing how artist express their feelings regardless of the reviews. 

• Independent artists are finding innovative ways to get in front of larger audiences through various channels. In the age of “going viral,” all it takes is one hit song, signature dance move, or other popular sweeps across trending topics to get people interested. Once interested, indie artists can continue sharing music via a YouTube channel, TikTok entertainment, and creative ways that grow their fanbase.
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  Music collaborations have always been areas where artists can tow the line between genres, particularly with country and pop. However, the door is open wider than ever for performers to pair up with other musicians or slowly dip into a genre they’re not primarily known for. Music industry trends over the years are similar. People want familiarity to the sounds or artists they already enjoy, but also crave the novelty of what’s to come.  Lil Nas X showed how easily people could adapt to the music genre crossover with his 2019 hit “Old Town Road,” when he managed to hit Billboard’s Hot Country chart while being touted a hip hop/country song

Pop Genre:

Motifs:

The two objectives of pop music are to be attractive to teenagers and young adults—and to be inoffensive enough that even those who hate the song are reluctant to switch off the radio or unplug the jukebox. Pop is generally upbeat and lively, with lots of Silly Love Songs; often highly melodic. If there are vocals, the instrumentation will often be discreet. This is the music many boy bands and girl groups sing.

Some common motifs that are seen in the pop genre music videos include:

• Ritual celebration - Examples include: parties on the beach, black artist usually being happy, white artists usually being demonic. Madonna uses this motif in her music video "Like a Prayer", where there is a choir seen rejoicing in a church and it is visually evident that the choir members are of black origin which backs up this theory. 

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  Horror -References to hell and Satan in videos which can cause a lot of controversy as it could upset certain regions. This consists of: extreme violence, hell, war or Satan. Rihanna's music video called Distubia, is an example of this motif as it shows the artist and dancers using demonic gestures. They look "possessed" to emphasise she is in another place. 
  

• Body Fragmentation - artist deliberately use close up of their Boyd parts to "excite" some viewers. Nicki Manji uses this motif in her music video for "super bass" a lot to showcase various body parts such as her eyes and breasts to keep viewer watching. 

Symbols:

• In the pop genre, artist usually try to link their lyrics to the music video, by using specific props. There is usually links to make sure that the video has some relevance to the song, making people remember the video. 
• Waterfalls by Stooshe tries to link his lyrics with visual images, such as "Don't go chasing waterfalls' there is an image of him standing by a waterfall. 

Representation:

• Some examples of different social groups and how they get represented in Pop Genre music videos. 
• Females are represented in a different way to male artist such as they are more often sexualised by wearing revealing clothing to help appeal to the male audience - The male gaze theory. 
• Men are represented to be more rich and powerful. They are shown to be more dominant with women. This is in order to seem more admirable to other men and makes them want to aspire to by similar to them. Men are normally portrayed to be seen as the hero in music videos all trying to get the girl, which shows that women are seen as a prize (object). 
• Different ethnicities and different cultures are often represented in music videos, however, they rarely challenge the stereotypes and representations which are shown about the different ethnicities other forms of media such as TV and Film. Different ethnicities in music videos can also be used to show an insight to that culture so that audiences can gain a better understanding.

Thematic:

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  Music videos are based around a single idea or concept which are usually obscure and can be surreal for an audience. The unusual themes of the music videos can draw lots of attention and sometimes these music videos can create a buzz on social media and increase the popularity of the song itself. Sia's music video for 'Elastic Heart' is a concept music video which drew a large amount of attention due to the obscure content of the video and also the main stars of the video Shia LeBeouf and Maddie Ziegler. There is also a lot of repetition the music video to help keep the running theme throughout the music video. 

Use of parody:

• Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or copying existing (usually well known) musical ideas, and/or lyrics, or copying the particular style of a composer or performer, or even a general style of music.
• Due to pop songs being based around common or relatable events, they are very easier make funny or for the audience to recreate the video with their own twist. 
• A famous parody artist is "Weird Al" Yankovic, he has been making parodies since 1984 with his first being called "eat it" in relation to Micheal Jacksons song "Beat it". 
• Artist do like to make fun of themselves in some music videos which can really engage the audience as it is giving the music video a comedic feeling make the viewers want to watch more videos, as that specific music video is very rememberable.