The genre of the video we have chosen is love, and more specifically, 'heartbreak'. Heartbreak songs began predominantly in the 1950s, following hits such as 'Cry', by Johnny Ray, which was considered to be the pioneering song of the heartbreak genre, and 'The First Cut Is The Deepest' (Cat Stevens). Heartbreak songs outline the idea of lovers falling out of love, and relationships failing. Stereotypical features of heartbreak videos, are the central character (usually the band/artist's lead singer) shown in a number of different shots in their bedroom or living room, through a black and white shot to show sadness and depression, and to give a sense of the past, or with a black background to show isolation and loneliness since the failing of the relationship. Many videos use slow motion images of the person that the character is without, usually a female character, as generally males are the ones that sing heartbreak songs about the female, showing them in colourful scenery looking happy, to contrast with their sad and lonely feelings, and to show aspects of their past relationship together. Examples of this are in 'The Script's' 'Breakeven', which I have chosen to in my textual analysis, as it contains many conventions such as this which are repeated throughout the video, and are alike in many other heartbreak videos.
Another convention used is a central character shown in the rain in different scenes and areas in a video. This is used to give an emotional representation of the central character braving the weather conditions to go and see/share their feelings with their loved one. This makes them look brave and strong, despite the sadness they are feeling, and pulls the audience in with this, making it personal to them as though they are in the video, and making them give empathy to the character singing. This is a powerful method of conveying emotions to the audience and making them feel part of the song and the actions within it, therefore drawing them into future videos by that company/artist. An example where this is used is in Enrique's 'Hero', showing him at the end of the video in the rain as he is dying after a showdown with an enemy, singing to his love as he does this, saying that he can be her hero. This is a powerful and overwhelming scene which is iconic to the audience from the whole video, as it gives a direct reaction to an audience, making them instantly feel empathy for him, and emotional themself, as they begin to think about a time in their life when a similar situation happened, as they have a personal response to it.
A final convention used, is that there are usually two central characters; one male and one female, and a common narrative plot from the selection within heartbreak videos. This could be that the character's love has cheated on them, or that they themself have cheated, or that the couple could not work out their problems, or even that the other character has found a new love. The lyrics usually create a moral from this idea, either that the person's new lover will not treat them as good, or that the main character is sorry for the arguments or for cheating. A similar theme is shown in Justin Timberlake's 'What Goes Around Comes Around', showing him with a female companion throughout the video, who eventually cheats on him. The moral of this video is clear from the lyrics and the actions, that, as in the title, 'What goes around comes around.' Justin is saying in the lyrics that she will get what she deserves, which is shown in the video by her being in a car crash at the end, with justin running to her side in shock.
Heartbreak is a common genre in the music industry now, but always uses similar conventions as these, to convey a powerful and emotional impact from the audience on a personal level, as they can understand the meaning of the lyrics from a combination of different actions and shots shown in the video, giving subliminal messages to the audience to create a certain mood. They are successful, which is why they are repeated throughout heartbreak videos alike.
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