Genre

Genre is the style or category of a TV program, music video, film and book

 

The history of the alternative pop genre:

·         Alternative pop is a genre that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s, with its roots in Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early 1980s (Josef K and Orange Juice) and the dominant UK independent band of the mid-1980s, The Smiths.

·         Alternative pop was inspired by punk's DIY ethic and related ideologies, and it generated a thriving fanzine (magazine created by fans), label, and club and gig circuit.

·         Alternative pop differs from indie rock to the extent that it is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free.

 

Typical lyrics for alternative pop

Lyrics for this genre usually include things along the line of:

·         Heartbreak

·         Revenge

·         Anger

·         Loneliness

·         Friendship

·         Relationships

·         Enjoying life

 

Characteristics of this genre

·         Appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology

·         An emphasis on how the music is made rather than formal "artistic" qualities

·         An emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performance

·         A tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments

·         Much pop music is intended to encourage dancing, or it uses dance oriented beats or rhythms

 

How are pop bands represented?

 

Alternative pop bands are usually represented by the simplicity and how normal they look E.G if you compare this band to another Pop artist (such as Katy Perry or Lady GaGa) you see that they look like everyday people doing something that they love to do, also the fact that they are all in the same style and similar colours of clothing emphasises the fact that they work together in a band unlike a solo artist who is the main attraction and this is usually done by extravagant clothing and over the top albums, which is very different to this.

 

 

Band ideology

The band Scouting for girls do a lot of charity work suggesting that this is one of the things that they believe in and is important to them, as judging by this statement from the internet:

·         ‘Scouting for Girls are official ambassadors for the children's charity, Wellchild, and also support the Help For Heroes charity. They fundraise for both charities. Their most notable fundraiser to date was cycling from London to Brighton on children's chopper bikes for WellChild’

 

Before the band became signed they had created their own fan site, which was:

·         The Wolfcub The name was wordplay similar to the band's name, being based on the Dennis the Menace fan club.

·         Members of the fan club were called Wolfcubs, and received a welcome pack put together by the band which include a CD of recent demos, a membership card which allowed discounted entry to their gigs, a regular SFG newsletter (similar to the famous Scouting For Boys guide book), and badges. When the band signed their record deal, they carried on producing the membership packs for new fans on the road, until the demand became too high to deal with. However, the Wolfcubs still exist in reference to the band's fans.

·         Scouting for Girls used regularly remark on the Wolfcubs as the "fourth member" of the band. As of 2010 current touring member Jamie O'Gorman is referred to as the fourth member and the Wolfcubs are now known as the fifth member of the band.

 

Target audience

It has been suggested that the target audience for the alternative pop genre is mainly people with a limited knowledge of music (as this style is mainly in the charts so is accessible easily through the radio when travelling) it has also been said that it is mainly females who listen to this genre of music as the band or artist that is usually at the top of the charts is male. Due to the music being fast paced and catchy I would expect the typical age group to be around 10-17.  

 

The male gaze (Laura Mulvey) theory applies to many of the videos in the pop genre and many of the dancers are usually wearing little clothing, looking perfect and are extremely skinny, which over the years has become the medias idea of what a female should look like.

 

Buckingham (1990's)

'Argues that genre is a constant process of negotiation and change' over time pop videos have changed and developed meaning that we are not seeing the same thing we would in a pop video that was created over 10 years ago, this is because technology has developed e.g. computer generated images have risen in quality meaning artists can do a lot more with their videos.