Conventions of My Music Genre - Rap/HipHop

David Buckingham (1993) argues genre is a contrast of negotiation and change

Rap Music videos carry many different codes and conventions, which like any other genre, are vital in making it unique and helping its niche audience relate to what is portrayed to them through voyeuristic pleasure.

The ‘rap artists' image has originated in America, gaining its first real success around the late 70's early 80's, with artists such as Run-DMC revolutionising the music industry at the time. However, some would suggest its roots come from further back and suggest Muhammad Ali as the first real rapper, influencing the genre through his powerful, pre-match poetry. For much of its existence, a convention of the genre would be that the artist's would be young, black African/Americans, though more recently the convention has be broken and re-applied as you will find white rappers in the music industry, for instance Eminem.

Rap Artists songs are unique as they or not usually sung , but “rapped” at a fast pace. The pace and sound of the artists vocals are most vital to its success and is iconic of the genre, which have become important in letting the mass audience that are not really interested in the genre recognise its sound. More recently, the genre has began to include more singing in the tracks, usually collaborations with artists from different genres, opening the track up to a wider audience, increasing record sales. This shows that even as a relatively new genre, it has adapted and evolved to survive in the media.

A main convention of Hip-Hop would be the artist's consistent use of explicit lyrics, easily more than any other musical style. This attracts audiences, too young to be part of the birth of hip-hop, who before wouldn't really care for the genre otherwise. On the other hand, the strong, sometimes offensive language found in almost every Hip-Hop track repels much of the other niche and mass audiences, a main factor in Hip-Hop still being a minor Genre.

Excessiveness and Extravagance, possibly the most recognised convention a viewer will find in a rap music video. The highly conventional and stereotypical image rap artists portraying their luxurious lifestyles, is an attempt to send out a message to the rest of the world of how successful and wealthy they have become. The priceless jewellery, the baggy clothes, the cars the houses etc. are all regularly shown to the audiences through the music video. Above all this convention shows the wealth and success an artist can gain through the genre. However the extravagance sets a milestone in the rise of Afro/American Culture. Black people where wrongly and severely looked down upon for hundreds of years, used as slaves that had been forced to worked for scraps, in return earning an exceptionally low quality of life, with no luxuries what so ever. They where completely at the hands of the rich, powerful white people. It is because of the terrible ways that black people where treated in the past, this convention has become more understandable to audiences. Rap artists have still always felt to be ridiculed against, as being criminals for instance. Many rap songs have a rapper as a protagonist in society, along with the police force, as the antagonist. They state how they are constantly being wrongly accused for crimes, which is shown in many videos, for instance Jay Z's "99 problems". In a certain scene of the video he is pulled over for being one mile over the speed limit. Although still being illegal, he protests that had he not been a black man, he would not of been pulled over.

Women are regularly portrayed as being an object in the genre. Half naked woman are pictured in possibly every up beat rap video on the twenty first century. This convention takes on ambiguous meanings. audiences may interpret the image as another reference to their success, women being an extravagance, no more important to their cars, houses and possessions. Others may look upon as an influence to follow in their role models footsteps, as through success you gain so much more attention from females. Many people however, suggest the convention is a statement of intent, with reference to the ways black people have been treated for most of their lives, establishing their rise in society and culture. Violence is another convention of Hip-Hop music videos. albeit dramatically, it symbolises the fight Black people have fought to reach success and have a true quality of life.