Example - Kickstarts

Genre= Electro, British Hip Hop, Grime

Genre Characteristics= Designer Labels

I chose this music video as it mixes a variety of different genres together to create a unified audience. I encountered it by watching the NME music channel, this influenced my interpretation of the text as it was shown on the weeks top 20 tracks. This influenced me as i would have known the popularity of the song already existed, therefore i would focus my attention to why it is popular. I recognise the branding in the video, such as nike and adidas in the shoe movement at the start of the video, also the Brit hip-hop element is represented by the location being very social realistic and not glamorous like in regular hip-hop videos.

The video stretches the usual conventions of the genre by appearing positive and very indie. This is due to the artists hairstyle and clothes and due to the video being about a love story, which are commonly frowned upon in the grime scene, maybe this is due to the artists new pathway from a new album as this being the first single from this. The positive outlook is clearly represented when the screen is split into three where various objects and people make up a human body, again this is used to match the style of the song which is different to the usual conventions of the artist and to appeal to a much wider target audience. The song is a summer hit, therefore the video is aiming to be very bright and bubbly and due to the current economic climate songs which make you feel upbeat and buoyant are the more popular due to escapism.

The video is clearly aimed at teenagers of both sex, and young adults. The festival and club scene being the niche genre, this is reflected due to the beat in the song which is emphasised as the video is on beat with the bass. It makes the assumption that we are all united in class as the video features a wide range of different people all enjoying the music. The video presumes your age is within the target market as key brands and movements associated with teenagers are used such as the excessive mirrors and the furnishings of the house. The ethnicity is presuming us to be white due to the mise en scene and the majority of white actors. But the music appeals to every genre as our culture is very diverse it is hard to pin point what appeals to each genre as we all take aspects from every culture in our society. The video assumes we have interests in women and shopping, due to the brand mentioning and the heterosexual love story. The text applies to me that love is hard to come by and stick with as the man tries everything but rarely succeeds, it also shows that everyone can come together with a song and that we can all be doing the same thing at the same time, but this questions our unique position in society.

The text takes for granted the knowledge of heterosexual love and the popularity of brands. It also takes for granted racial harmony being accepted, as 30 years ago featuring a black person in a music video would be questioned. I feel i am part of the 'ideal reader' but this is due to the extensive target market, as i feel the video only appeals to part of my ideal genre.

At the lyric "might be holding your hand but i'm holding it loose" the video shifts, as previously we thought their love was true and ongoing. The video expects me to feel compassionate towards the male, as it he tries to make things right, but we feel sorry for the woman as we feel the man is making the situation hard for her. But this depends on your gender and your experience in relationships and even culture. The video does not have a targeted expectation from you as it takes us down different paths due to the varying faces and emotions. There is a penalty of not responding as the ending to the video will not be relevant and you would feel the video would not appeal to you, so the video makes you tell yourself the story.

I feel myself "reading against the grain" due to the non-set expectations of the video, i feel there is a deeper meaning to each split screen emotion, making me watch the video again. This is common in many videos to promote the video, but this marketing scheme is not always portrayed in this way, some of the editing used is common but story and editing together is not very common with this genre.