Steve Neale - Genre Theorist

Born on the 9th of January 1958, Stephen Roy Albert Neale (Steve Neale) is an analytic philosopher and specialist in the philosophy of language who specializes mainly about meaning, interpretation, information and communication. He states that 'genres are instances of repetition and difference; this is what pleasure for the audience is derived from'. He believes that you must stay within certain boundaries to prevent the audience from confusion and boredom. He also suggests that there should be an even balance between the ideas of repetition and difference, otherwise the audience will immediately become frustrated and will lack interest and become disorientated. 


I will now post 3 music video, which backs up Steve Neale's idea of repetition and difference in genre:

DEMI LOVATO: HEART ATTACK -

The first video I will apply to Steve Neale's theory is 'Heart Attack' by Demi Lovato, which is a song of the 'pop' genre. However, her typical genres for her songs are a selection of pop, rock and r&b. We can tell the song is of a pop genre, due to it's catchy lyrics and the star image of the main artist.    First of all, the lyrics of the chorus is casually repeated 'If I ever did that, I think I'd have a heart attack'. This creates a somewhat catchy, memorable feel to the song, which means that the next time they hear the song, they will easily remember the lyrics, therefore gaining interest. Not only is the song lyrics repeated, but also the mise-en-scene features of the music video. For example, the video features a constant use throughout the whole video of a white backdrop, which then cuts to a black backdrop. As well as this, the artist appears visible when Demi is seen in front of the white backdrop, covered in black ink on her chest. This makes her appear more visible, so the audience can see who she is and also brings up the idea of 'voyeurism' due to her see-through clothing and exposure of her chest. 

Another example of repetition used is the use of close-up shots to show the artist's face. This gives the audience a clear idea of who she is, so people can 'figure out' who the artist is in upcoming music videos.
    Finally, the lyrics 'You make me glow'. Shown in the visuals when the lyrics is sung is of a wide/establishing shot of a rock band, with their guitars and drums, with the ceiling lights suddenly turning on.  

This aspect relates to Andrew Goodwin's theory of music video, where the lyrics match the visuals, as shown in the picture for 'Heart Attack' (left). This is repetitive because this shot appears everytime the lyric is sung by Demi Lovato.



THE SATURDAYS - WHAT ABOUT US:

The next video I will apply to Steve Neale's theory is 'What About Us' by The Saturdays, which like 'Heart Attack' is a song of the pop genre. Once again, we can tell the song is pop because of the upbeat music present and the catchy lyrics and also presents the star image of the band. 
   First of all, there is a repetition of the close-up shots of each member of The Saturdays. This appears mostly in the first part of the video, where the girl group are seen walking down an empty, urban street. This gives the audience once again to gain an idea of the members of The Saturdays close-up, so we can recognize them in future videos. This feature is seen most predominantly in the chorus, where all members of the group are singing the chorus. This is shown via loads of close-ups of all the members, as well as fast-editing.

However, amongst all this, there is a difference to the setting of the music video, which ultimately makes the video more appealing, rather than just a music video, filmed in the daytime. The first half of the video is filmed in the daytime, showing scenes of the girls walking down a street, going shopping, playing pool and chilling next to an outside swimming pool in the blazing sun. The second half, however, is filmed in the nighttime, showing scenes of the girls dancing in an astroturf, with the outdoor lights on. Not only is this appealing to the audience, but also suggests the life of a teenager in the summer (chilling with friends, going shopping and partying all night with friends).


PSY - GANGNAM STYLE:

The final music video I will apply to Steve Neale's theory of 'repetition and difference' is the YouTube phenomenon 'Gangnam Style' by PSY. Watched by almost 2 billion people worldwide and has almost 8 million likes, no wonder 'Gangnam Style' is proven popular to a worldwide audience. The music video is of a pop genre, due to it's recognizable lyrics, crazy dancing and star image of PSY. 



 
















First of all, let's talk about a repetition, which is most prominent in this music video. In these 4 images (above) we can see PSY and extras performing his signature dance move to the camera, which is featured throughout the whole clip. However, he is shown performing his dance moves in different locations, making it a lot more exciting for viewers to watch, including some scenes which shows the somewhat humorous side to the video; no wonder this video proves to be so big worldwide.
      The use of repetition is also shown and heard in the lyrics 'Oppan Gangnam Style'. Like the other 2 video's as shown above, these lyrics create a catchy, memorable approach to the song, so when this song is played again, it can be understood a lot easier, due to those catchy lyrics. This approach, therefore, gains interest to the viewer.

We can understand that a difference about this video is the huge selection of locations used to stage the video and it's popular dance move. However, a more unique difference to the music video is the use of props in scenes, where there is no purpose to them. In this screenshot (above) we can see that the setting is of an indoor tennis court, with 2 girls playing tennis...but...what is the purpose of the shopping trolley located on the left hand side. This creates a sense of humour to this video, which obtains interest for the viewer, because of the obscurity of a shopping trolley in the middle of a tennis court. The audience would describe this approach as 'random' because on the unsuspected prop in the particular scene of the video. This idea is one of the reasons why this video is so popular and how, out of millions of music videos, is ranked the best in the world, due to the amount of likes of YouTube and of the amount of viewers of the video.