Conventions of Genres

Different genres of music have many different conventions that go hand in hand with the genre, the artist, the music and the image of the act overall contribute to this, the first thing many people see to do with the artist is the album cover, this can give a lot away about the artist and the music that they chose to perform, so an album cover is a good way to draw people in to listen to your music and get to know what your all about. The image of the artist also has a big say in what the artist is all about aswell, because for example, a 40 year old man with shaggy black hair, who wears leather clothes and plays the drums isn't going to perform pop music, and this is because the image of someone who performs rock music and someone who performs pop music are totally different. 


Pop
Pop music is one of the most popular genre's of music these days, just because it is typically up beat and the artists tend to sing about nice day to day things that people go through in a more up beat way that people like to listen to because its pleasurable and makes them appreciate life and see it as people describe in the cheesy pop songs.

So-called "pure pop" music, such as power pop, utilising electric guitars, drums and bass for instrumentation; in the case of such music, the main goal is usually that of being pleasurable to listen to, rather than having much artistic depth. Pop music is generally thought of as a genre which is commercially recorded and desires to have a mass audience appeal.  "Pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, aimed at a youth market, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll.

Katy Perry is a good example of a pop artist that has been around for a while in the music industry, she constantly brings out new material that always seem to be top of the charts.
Katy Perry's music videos are girly, fun and always seem to have a meaning to them, which makes them all the more relateable for people listening to them. 




The above video is called 'Waking up in Vegas' and it's the typical over the top, lots of outfit changes, upbeat kind of pop song and video. Its a typical mix of the same chorus mixed in with a few verses, Katy makes a lot of effort in this video to be the centre of attention, and thats what a lot of pop videos are like, the main vocal artist is at the foreground of most shots. This is to promote them aswell as the song itself. 

These three photos are of three different outfits that are used in the 'Waking up in vegas' video, there are a few more too, by using so many different outfits it gets the audience excited about what she could be wearing next, keeping them wanting to stay watching the video. The music is continually upbeat except for right at the beginning and in the bridge nearer the end of the song, this is typical for pop videos, the bridge slows it down and also gets the people watching excited for when it eventually speeds up, this makes them want to dance.

A lot of pop artists are in the public eye for not only their music but also for their personal lives, they are talked about  in newspapers, online and mostly in magazines for having weight issues or about their screwed up relationships, they might not particularly like it, but thats what you get for being loved by everyone!





Rock
Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in 1950s America and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s' and 1950s' rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources.

Musically, rock has centered around the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with bass guitar and drums. Typically, rock is song-based
music, but the genre has become extremely diverse and common musical characteristics are difficult to define. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. The dominance of rock by white, male musicians has been seen as one of the key factors shaping the themes explored in rock music. Rock places a higher degree of emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and an ideology of authenticity than pop music.

Linkin Park is an American rock band from California. They were formed in 1996, but the band officially rose to International fame after the success and fame of their first album, Hybrid Theory.
The first thing you notice about Linkin Park are their tattoos, piercings and slightly not normal hair styles. They create different types of Rock songs, a lot of them are screaming and loud performances, but a short few of them are actually slow, meaningful ballad type songs, they are the ones that you automatically know what the meaning of them are, but the louder songs are a little more difficult to decide what they mean, and people can interpret them in different ways to suit their moods.

The video above is their latest single 'Lost in the echo' it isnt a really loud song originally, but i suppose if you turned it right up, and had a lot of bass on your stereo etc then it could be pretty loud, especially with the screaming and the drums etc in the background going throughout the song. This song obviously has a meaning to it, and that is about losing people because of their broken promises. 
In the video you don't actually see the band, this is quite normal for rock bands, because they like to put a story across, and they maybe want the focus to be on the song and the meaning of it then on them. 

This song 'My December' does not have a video to it, but this song it a total contrast to 'Lost in the echo' it is slower and shows of the softer voices of the artists, there is no particularly loud beats in it, there are drum beats, but they arn't too loud and they don't over power the singing, there is obviously a hidden meaning to it, because other than knowing whatever is special happened or happens in December, we don't really know anything else, this could maybe suggest that this song means a lot and that the band wanted to keep the real meaning to themselves as it might be too painful to actually mention properly.



Indie
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include indie pop, jangle pop and lo-fi, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock.

Indie music is normally people with guitars, singing, nothing too blingy or over the top, stories or alternative people are used in the videos, but normally its just simply the main artist with no over the top features. 

Ed Sheeran would be classed as an Indie artist, this is because most of the time his music is slow, very instrumental and pretty simple. In some of his videos you don't even see much of him, this would be because he might want to tell the story, and the story means a lot to him, and he doesn't want to take any focus away from the story itself, listening to the lyrics and watching the story take place creates more of an experience than seeing him walk around with a guitar. 

In the above video, you only see Ed once and thats only if you are really focusing on it and looking out for him, this would show that he doesn't want all the focus on him but more on his music, he wants people to realise his music more than him. 

Most Indie artists would be more inclined to get their music across to their audience than their personal profile, a lot different to typical pop artists who like to show off whenever the opportunity is there.