Genre Case Study

Background Information of the Artist

To me the artist is of some unique platform, when I first heard her sing 'For The First Time' by The Script I immediately thought that she would become a worldwide sensation, her voice and chosen music genre of folk/indie folk isn't seen to be a popular chosen music genre in todays modern society between teenagers and that is why I think that her voice and genre of music makes her differentiate herself from other female artists such as Rihanna.

The emotions and her ideologies that she portrays in her songs are feelings that many demographics of 15-30 experience and have an emotional connection to the lyrics, which is powerful in the sense of them wanting to attach themselves onto what they know and have felt, which again makes her music a lot different in terms of the music that we are exposed to now. Her genre was simple to discover because of her dress style and the instruments used in the songs that she creates, when I did my research which consisted of listening, reading and watching her music videos, it resulted me to come to the conclusion that her genre style was folk/indie folk and singer-songwriter. I like the fact that her music if different from other stereotypical music such as Drum and Bass that is associated with youth, but instead prefer the contrast in challenging what music genre is associated with what age. Her demographic range like I said would target 15-30 year olds, and they would be aimed at women more due to the association of the lead female singer.

Gabrielle Aplin is 22 years old and started her music passion on YouTube where she used to sing and perform covers such as Paramore and You Me at Six. In February 2012, she announced she had singed a record deal with Parlophone and was recoding her debut album 'English Rain'. She gained mainstream attention the following November when she was selected to soundtrack a John Lewis television commercial with the cover of 'Frankie Goes to Hollywood's' "The Power of Love".

Genre Theory in the Music Video

Watching through the music video you can connote that this is a story about someone or something entering your life just at the right time and pulling you through something you didn't know how you were going to get through, turning up at the at the most perfect time without being asked or searched for, being their salvation. Music videos such as Ecosmith are purposely made to promote the lead singer rather than promote any enforcing narrative, this implies that the media are intended on promoting the singer, whereas Gabrielle's music video as well as promoting the singer does reinforce a narrative and applies to Goodwin's theory of the relationship between music and visuals. This type of music video tends to be used on similar genre styles, when I researched Gabrielle, there was a sectioned based around what people also searched for and artists such as Birdy, Nina Nesbitt and Christina Perri all share the same genre of music style and have similar narratives and music videos that show a strong link of music to visuals. One music video in particular that I found interesting that Birdy's 'Skinny Love' and Gabrielle's 'Power of Love' share the same instrument and location, which suggests that these two artists are closely related and have a particular style this is different compared to other music videos with different genres.

These types of narratives, with the storyline being focused around the lyrics tend to be used in Folk and Indie Folk because the artists believe that by showing and powerful image, it will promote the lyrics and reinforce a powerful message if audiences can address what they're hearing to what they're seeing. Unlike band music video performances who use their instruments to show to the audience that they have a skill, Gabrielle also addresses that she can play guitar, piano and singing to let the audience know that she is the artist, but this also can be established through close ups of the artists and through giving her the largest screen time.

The main focus on this music video is portraying what the lyrics mean, this is identified through the contrast on the colours of the outfits that the actors are wearing, the male character is in white connoting that he is the saviour whereas she is dressed in black and is portrayed as lost and suggesting external stress and sadness which the song represents. The genre of the song is clear due to the heavy application of the piano and the singer dominating the song. Gabrielle brings the attention of the folk genre by choosing not to diverse into using strobe lighting and montages of band scenes but kept it clean with just acting and ambient lighting, most genres such as Drum and Bass and Rock bands use strobe lighting to mimic a concert or the character types of the audience watching, this can linked to 'Afrika Shox' by Leftfield and the way that the genre can be identified by using lighting to connote the sort of places that this song will be played at e.g. clubs, this reminds them of their demographic. Gabrielle Aplins identified genre are portrayed through the music video with its art-house approach of a narrative.