Identifying Genre Signifiers R&B Genre

Fashion/clothing for R&B music videos• In R&B music videos the men are mostly topless for example Trey Songz is usually in very little clothing, this is because a lot of male artists in

that industry, target audience are teenage girls and being topless appears to be very sexy and eye-catching towards them. also if the artist is wearing a certain brand they will do close-ups to advertise that particular item more, because if celebrities have it other people will definitely want

to buy it. • Most R &B artists have tattoo a majority of them have tattoo on their chest or arms ( i.e. Chris brown has tattoos on his neck, arms and chest.)

• Males in music videos wear subtle jewellery like a watch, chain or earring. Where has in hip hop videos they wear lots of jewellery. • Women in R &B videos usually have little clothing on and their stomachs are on show, this is because they want to draw attention to the younger

male audience, also to male fans they are meant to be seen as objects of desire, and the showing flesh and cleaverage sells more albums. Also to show some women power bold colour lip stick power some women wear bold lipstick. For female artists their hair is always styled in a very

dramatic and eye catching way. Their makeup is also very bold and artistic, especially their eyes they are always have dark coloured eye shadows with golds or silvers which makes their eyes very alluring.

•With the male artists they usually have a woman or women with them dancing sexily who they are singing too.

•With female artists they also have a man in the video that generally are topless in the videos. This is because R and B song are generally about relationships.

•Sunglasses is a prop that is used a lot along with a lot of jewellery (bling) this connotes that they have a lot of money and wealthy.

•A lot of close ups of the artist lip singing

•Expensive brand new cars/ motorbikes

•Locations are of places in sunny destinations (the beach is a popular place, along with clubs and bars.)

•Some R&B artists use special effects to create a unusual dynamic background with lots of colours like the black eyed peas video ‘Boom Boom Pow’

•The performance of the videos is generally the artist being stationary lip singing or often they use tracking shots to follow them walking, this enforces the idea that the audience is actually there.

• The target audience for this type of music would be for teenagers from 12 and up to the age of 30.• R&B females wear high heels to elongate their legs beauces oft the fact that they're wearing little clothing. However in some videos artists wears

trainers in their video for choreographed scenes like dance routines.

Some types of songs have narrative but others will just be shots of artists, because a majority of the time the location for these songs will be a beach or a tropical island overlooking somewhere beautiful. This will then mean a lot of wide shots showing the location. That is if it’s a love song. Songs about breaking up usually take place in a plain black room which will probably have a chair or very minimal items in the room, because these songs tend to concentrate on the artist by using close-up to show significant figure expression both facial and body. For example a breaking up song is ‘Beyoncé-Irreplaceable’“Irreplaceable" is a song that was re-arranged as a mid-tempo pop ballad. During the recording sessions, Beyoncé wanted to create a record that people of either gender could relate to. The song's lyrics are about the breakdown of a relationship with an unfaithful man and the song contains a message about female empowerment. It opens with Beyoncé filing her nails in silence, as her ex-partner packs up his property, as Beyoncé orders him to leave. Mid-way in the video, Beyoncé follows her then-ex-boyfriend outside the house and leans on a 2007 Jaguar XK. She appears to be pretentiously caressing him; only for the audience to find out that she is repossessing things she bought for him. He leaves her and the car, about to ride off in a taxi. Between cuts, Beyoncé manages herself in front of a mirror; putting on a lipstick, wearing huge curlers and a high- waisted skirt. Beyoncé sings with a band, then it ends with Beyoncé greeting her new boyfriend at the front door.

Fast R&B music videos• These videos consist of bright colours, flashy cars, jewellery almost like a party scene, and involves a lot

of choreography. Also they're the only one videos that are depict R&B males in a wealthy light and females in a powerful light. The typical conventions involve being a club, champagne, artificial lighting and women wearing minimal clothing(usually in short dresses and glamorous makeup and heels). These videos portray the stars as fun and loving people, also very social able.

• Another thing is the male artists mostly wear sunglasses indoors to convey a sense of coolness, which their target markets will find very appealing and eye catching. These props like expensive bottles of alcohol helps advertise these items.

• Fast tempo songs by females involved bright colours, but it not about being in the club like the way the male depict themselves, also a lot are done in a studio because there are lots of special effects especially in the background(for example Rihanna in her video `rude boy’).The clothes she's wearing in the video are very revealing with high heels to make her legs look longer. Bright makeup to stand out more but it is not strong eye makeup it is usually very strong lip colours (like red or bright pink).Videos like this do not tend to follow a narrative but have a lot of creditable effects and involve a male dancer/dancers because there is a lot of choreography, and also portray the musicians in powerful light although there is not a total gender switch up, they still seem more powerful than they do in video for love songs.

A lot of videos are done in a studio because there are lots of special effects especially in the background, this is because they want a certain place or location to be in the background to match the tempo and beat of the songs and what's going on in their videos.

For example ‘Tinashe-Pretend’ uses special effects in her video to make the background a sun set place on a beach to make it match the slow start of the song, and also has her hair blowing like its in wind as if she was actually there.

Slow R&B videos• Majority of R&B slow songs are filmed in black and white/greyscale toned backgrounds or are very colourful. I think this

is because they want the colours to be very soft to show more emotion because dark colours over look the point of the video and too much colour distracts the video to much.

E.g.-Trey Songz-Can`t be friends

White and black background balance out these videos because it makes the video more interesting to watch, also sometimes it can depict a sense of power instead of showing softness.Slow R&B videos also usually follow a narrative which means having a co-star alongside them(another artist).They don`t wear a lot of jewellery because hip hop videos do that, and although they are wealthy they don`t want to over do it. This is why they use a lot of close-ups on their bodies and abs, also it is a convention which is very common in R&B `slow jamz.’In slow songs(slow jamz) there are a lot of close-up kissing and touching of the artist and other actor/actress in the video. However this is convention is found is mostly sexual songs but especially in male artists that talk a lot about sex.Slow jamz that are about being in love and breaking up, doesn't have as much nudity. These kind of songs are mostly done by females, also they mostly wear minimal clothes that will depict them in the same light as goddesses. The clothes will be bright and colourful to show their happiness if the song is about love and being joyful. Whereas if it is about a breakup the videos will use a greyscale or black and white filter to show, how upset the artist is.(the emotion they show).and their clothing will be very dark to hide mystery.A lot of nude coloured/natural makeup is used in these videos, this is because the female artists don`t want to draw too much attention away from the main point of the videos. Also to convey the sense of natural beauty because there a lot of close-ups to the females faces and there don't heavy makeup on.

Target audience R&B fans are normally teenagers or young adults roughly (aged 13 to

25),this is because some songs are too sexual or explicit for such a young age, and also most of the people are females due to the fact that females are attracted to R&B music because females artists making love song about being in love or heartbroken. This is something that will appeal greatly to teenage girls and young females. Fast paced songs will also involve a lot of fashion and that will attract females because if they are into that type of music they usually interesting in fashion.

The target audience of R&B males is also majorly made up of females because they're portrayed themselves in a very sexual way (through their nudity and lyrics. The female audience finds this very eye-catching and are physically attracted to males artists.

There are teenagers that from a black background because R&B comes from soul which would be something that young adults parents would listen to (old school songs).