Music Video Genres

Music Video Genres

The video linked below discusses the various different genres regarding music video production and how the codes and conventions are signified in each.

Choosing a music video genre - Video

Genre Differentiation - Distinguishing between Folk and Traditional Music

Genre Differentiation - Distinguishing between Folk and Traditional Music

So as to explore genre similarities further, I have investigated the connection between Traditional and Folk Music, as the two are often mislabelled. I have chosen to further study this area as the Artist's style, with whom I will be working with to complete this project, is somewhat reminiscent of the Folk genre.

Is music Folk or Traditional in its genre? Used as synonyms in the English language, the two adjectives carry a very different meaning in French. By definition, folk is related to the people. In the French language, a pejorative connotation is now commonly understood which explains why musicians rather use the more neutral expression traditional music: Folk music (“musique folklorique”) became the expression to categorise a type of unchanged music, like for the museums, whereas traditional music (“musique traditionnelle”) is interpreted, arranged within a living society.

The connotation of the word folk goes far beyond the simple notion of an unchanged music. To explain, let’s bring up the context: by definition, traditional music is passed from generation to generation, but folk music is learned out of context. This new meaning needs to be further explained - 

In the case of traditional music, the musician inherits a musical knowledge from his elders. In the case of folk music, the musician can out of context only invent a music learnt from a tool – a music sheet, a recording etc – without knowing the necessary code to understand it. This code can be fully transmitted only from another musician of the related culture. In one case, two people are involved - a teacher and a learner - in the other case, there is only one person - the learner independently.

The idea of inventing out of context is perfectly acceptable as soon as the musician fully assumes this responsibility. The recreation should be clearly mentioned and not pretend to belong to a musical tradition which is not. The appropriation of traditional tunes has created some of the most inventive and important styles in music history, Bàrtok and Stravinsky being two of the most well known composers in this category.

The decontextualisation mentioned above brings up a few fundamental issues in all kinds of music. How to feel the difference between a kas a-barh, an an dro and a Breton tour learned from a music sheet? How to understand that we don’t perform a piece by Bach, Mozart or Beethoven the same way, without bringing up the notion of style, and thus, of tradition? In Lehman's terms, how do we distinguish between the genres that we express through our playing? All of this is related to the teaching method. Also, the transmission from a teacher to a learner is absolutely not a guarantee to learn the “traditional” music style. By “traditional”, we mean all kinds of music passed on by a tradition (classical, jazz, rock music etc) as well as the “traditional” music, commonly so named for lack of a better word.

One of the decontextualisation issues is quickly observable: in the past, without the opening of the media and internet, a society was quite closed, contained within itself, a stark contrast to the networking that is common place in modern times. Each member of this society was, somehow, a teacher, someone who had inherited and kept a common knowledge. The transmission happened from a number of teachers (the community as a whole) to a unique learner (a newborn, a newcomer in this community). In the modern society, the inversion of the process is a real challenge because the teacher is now more often alone in transmitting the code to a group of learners always more numerous in classes and workshops. The transmission of traditional music is really possible by confronting numerous sources, meaning teachers, because a single person will only teach a subjective part of his or her own understanding of the traditional matter.

One other main issue is that it’s more common enter the folk category rather than the traditional category (whether aware or unaware). Which musician never learned a tune one day only from the music notation, meaning out of context? How many musicians perform pieces from the Baroque time the same way they would perform classical or romantic tunes? If we all enter the “folk” category at some point in our life, the good news for those who are careful of the tradition, is that this can be cured quite easily. Just approach a traditional musician (according to the definition seen above) and relearn from him or her.

More good news is that the tradition is keen enough to integrate new things quickly. Irish dancing, or more commonly Riverdance, reveals the phenomenon. In the mid-20th century nobody, even not in Ireland, would have qualified this kind of dance as traditional yet since then, spread globally, it is now recognisable as “typically” Irish traditional dancing. In actual fact this form of dance is the result of the Irish cultural revival started at the end of the 19th century by the Gaelic League. This example shows a tradition well alive, regenerated with modern colours and strong in creativity. In the same way, the Breton fest noz, which is on Unesco’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2012, was in fact invented, in its modern form, in the 1950s. In the same way, the Celtic harp is also an interesting case: almost forgotten in the middle of the 20th century, it is now on the list of traditional instruments taught in conservatoires. And last, how many tunes are considered as “traditional” by some musicians whereas their composers are well known by others? 

Each of the three examples listed above demonstrate the crossover between the Folk and Traditional genre’s. The line between folk and traditional music is thin enough that one can cross it often without noticing it. Because our society is more and more open, it is difficult for musicians to appreciate the context of a tune and therefore to genuinely perceive this thin line. It also serves to show how genre is becoming less and less of a useful navigational tool. Nowadays it would appear that genre’s use is much more relevant in order to entice the consumer as a distribution tool, categorising an artist so as to entice an audience, be that niche or a much broader market.

We shall conclude with the facts that - first, if folk music is at a creative dead end, it has however developed the idea of musical appropriation (reworking images, styles attitudes from previous musical expressions) which provide reason for the analog revival - and, second, the tradition keeps moving and assimilates new materials in order to answer the issues of the modern times.

Birth of Final Digipak Idea

My final concept is a double album or double Ep that shows a contrast between the two. After subverting the conventions of Folk (as analysed in my mock-up below), the initial concept was to create two halves to the album with both having very different feels, one conforming to the more traditional nature of the Folk genre (clearly signified by the Acoustic Guitar) whilst the second would appear much more Urban, Rocky and Upbeat in stark contrast. However after creative feedback I have decided instead to split the "album" into two Eps as opposed to halves with the diagonal line (slash) symbolising the divide. This also is a direct reference to the vinyl era alongside the want to return to analog and the concept of having to flip the record in order for the audience to complete their listening, in this case the audience are encouraged to listen to both Eps and compare the adverse inconsistency alongside the aspects of conformity between the two.

Genre

Genre
What is Genre?

Broadly speaking, genre is defined as a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterised by similarities in form, style and/or subject matter

The Issues With Genre

The issue nowadays is being able to distinguish between the different genres as there are now such a vast amount to choose from. There are many sub-genres, sub-sub-genres and even further, that labelling, categorising and defining musicians, artists and bands has become an extremely challenging task as is discussed in the video to the right.

As mentioned above, distinguishing between genres is an extraordinary difficult concept. Many genres are sometimes mis-matched or confused - such as punk, rock, pop and hiphop - whereas others may have undergone the process of broadening. there is also the concept of "the mainstream product". It seems that anything that's popular and trending in this current day and age can be labelled as the mainstream. For instance the Top 40 music charts are labelled as being "mainstream" simply because the music played is dominant across the UK. This does not necessarily mean that all of the music within the Top 40 fit into the "rap" genre for instance, more often than not there are many different musical styles incorporated within the charts, yet by labelling it as this one group of "mainstream" we are implying that it is identical in it's nature.

Further issues lie with modernisation's within genres. For example Folk Music can bring to mind "Barn Dance Bands", groups that perform with instrumentation such as Banjos, Violas, Fiddle's and of course the classic Steel-Stringed Guitar. Yet this is very much the "old-school" of Folk. Nowadays this genre is filled with acoustic singer-songwriters. Yes artists such as Ben Howard and Charlie Simpson still draw from Folk's roots, for example through their use of strings, but the music is much more modern in terms of production as a result of the advancement of technology. Some may argue that Mumford and Sons are very much keeping with the original Folk genre through their instrumentation (as pictured) when in actual fact they are merely modernising Folk further by bringing the traditional instruments into the present day. As a result of this, youth culture and aspiring musicians

- guitarists in particular - are aspiring to play

the Banjo so as to be a part of the move back

to older culture/technologies (alongside the

return of the vinyl record).

Mumford and Sons use traditional Folk instruments such as the Banjo and Accordion within their music