Representing Social Groups- Question 2
Teenage Music Lovers-Pop rock style
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine contains varied genres within it but is all the featured artists are made over to have more rock look to them. Today it is known as pop-rock, it gained main-stream popularity in the 60's it is a mixture of pop and rock music, it is defined in many different ways from slower and more mellower form of rock songs, to a sub genre of pop music. Artists famous for singing pop-rock are Elton John, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart. Pop-rock became less popular as a genre of music in the 90's after pop music became the mainstream music of the time, however in recent years pop-rock has made a come back as a sub-genre. As many music artists of different genres of music have taken the kind of rock look and found a way to combine it with their music to create more of an edge and a bit more of a dramatic twist to both their music and style, such as Taylor Swift (country), Katherine Jenkins (Classical Crossover), Beyonce (RnB). These artists have taken the look and added it to their music to make a difference in symbolic messages fans get in their music and other artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, James Arthur have created more modern pop-rock music.
Examples of the pop-rock style:
(Old pop-rock style)
Paul McCartney-Junk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLWm-m6CuCY
Rod Stewart- Have you ever seen it rain?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oX2FSv4Rys
These are songs of the pop-rock genre, who have helped modern day artists use new looks to help change the image and representations of their music.
(Newer pop-rock style)
Taylor Swift is a country music artist who became popular in 2009, at first her music was very much country music with a modern day twist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhj15W23IjA
Then in 2010 she released the song Picture to Burn which she added a rock style to add a bit more edge to the video as this is a song about being angry at an old lover, this video is similar to many rock videos, featuring band shots, heavy use of black and a use of electric guitars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCMqcFAigRg
Katherine Jenkins is a Classical Crossover artist who came to fame in 2004, at first she had a very traditional classical look and sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR7EaHbPe54
But in recent years she has taken a different approach and has helped make classical music more accessible. She has done this by an edgier look and covering pop songs. In 2009 she released her most accessible album called Believe in which she covered the song Bring Me to Life by Evanescence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-IX9a4r7wY
In the video she has taken on a very sexy and edgier look compared to a stereotypical classical singer, making the song seem very moody and more accessible to a wider audience.
James Arthur won the X Factor in 2012, throughout the competition he had his own thing of taking many genres of music and singing them with his style of voice, which was very much a rock voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNbHhdBSk8M
With his winners single he took the pop song Impossible and sung it it with his very rock voice, this helped add more emotion to the song, which was very relevant as the music video was about his emotional roller coaster journey on X Factor. With him winning the show he is another example how by adding a sub genre to another genre of music can help be accessible to a wider audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhj15W23IjA
How pop-rock has changed?
Pop-rock used to be a selling music genre before it was taken on as a sub-genre for varied music artists today.Elton John has had a career spanning 4 decades, singing genres such as pop-rock, glam-rock, RnB, soft rock and rock. He has had over 50 Top 40 Consecutive singles, the main years in his career was between the late 60's to the late 80's before he decided to take more of a creative role in the music industry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6KYAVn8ons
This happened to many other music artists who sung pop-rock, less of this genre music was played in the 90's when the new music genre faze Punk Metal came along. Similarly to pop-rock, punk metal was evolved from rock music. Within the 90's although the pop-rock genre had become less mainstream, it began to make a comeback as a style for other genres of music. This is how it began its role as a representation for the look and feel of music, examples of the first pop-rock representation look is Whitney Houston. In her music video 'I will always love you' she has gone for a very moody look, this helps convey the emotional meaning of the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JWTaaS7LdU
The pop-rock visual representation in her music video is similar to the representation used in Elton John's 'Sorry seems to be the hardest word.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2e4NlnLr28
Similar technical and symbolic codes are used in the music videos. From high camera angles to extreme close ups. Slow paced editing and the low key lighting. As well as the isolated setting, use of colour for clothing. Also the mise-en-scene of being isolated and alone after losing someone and missing them. Both very similar use of style used for different genres of music.
How pop-rock is still relavant today?
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its (typically) guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music. The detractors of pop rock often deride it as a slick, commercial product, less authentic than rock music.
As with many musical genres, what constitutes "pop rock" is subjective. As such, music critics and journalists have differing opinions on which category a band should be placed in. Billboard magazine provides one perspective on how to categorize "pop rock" groups from the 1970s to the 2000s.
Today in many magazines pop-rock has become the housetyle to many music magazines such as Kerrang, NME. However the best example of a pop-rock house style is Q magazine. Whenever they have a music artist on their front cover, whatever their genre they have a way to change their look using technical and symbolic codes to follow the magazines house style. For example Girls Aloud member Cheryl Cole, is the typical popstar who follows the mainstream look of any other pop star. Her look is very bright and colourful to help her appeal more to a the wide audience that enjoys new release and pop music. But when she appeared on the cover of Q she had her syle changed to the house style of Q magazine, which is very much a rock style. This helped her appeal to a wider target audience, of both her fans and the fans of the Q magazine style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIx8-YmAVk0
This is what all types of magazines do today, they change the style of an artist to help sell their magazine to a wide target audience. By bringing styles together you are combining together what would usually be 2 seperate audiences to make one. This is what I did with my magazine I took a variety of music styles and tied them with my housestyle to create a wider target audience for my music magazine.
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