Visual Essay to the ‘Show Me’ Video by Kid Ink, Chris Brown and Tyga.

Genre Theory

Steve Neale’s theory applies to the Show Me video because the genre of the ‘Show Me’ video is R&B/rap. In the 1960’s,

R&B was also known as ‘soul’ and often referred to as ‘black peoples music’, now R&B has evolved and

incorporates more electronic sounds to sound more modern.This applies to the Show Me video because the R&B genre

has developed and is shown throughout the song because of the new electronic element put in to make it more modern

and up beat for its audience.

Steve Neale (1995) stresses that genres are not systems, they are processes of systematization. I.E they are dynamic and evolve over time.

All genres have sub genres (genre within a genre)This means that they are divided into more specific categories that allow audiences to identify them specifically by their familiar and what become recognisable characteristics (Barry Keith Grant 1995)

Although genres can have a sub genre, the Show me Video does not have a sub genre because the video is R&B video that has the typical elements of R&B such as girls, wealth

and the boys are wearing the typical costume which includes jewellery to show their wealth and jeans. This

concludes that the Show Me music video does not conform with Barry Keith Grants theory as the music video conforms

to the R&B genre.

Jason Mittell; argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience and cultural practices as well. In short, industries use genre to sell products to the audience. Media producers use similar codes and conventions that very often make cultural references to their audience knowledge of society, other texts. Genre also allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfil a particular pleasure.

Genre --> Institution --> Texts --> Audience -|   ^------------------- <------------------------------------|

Like in many genres, R&B has its own conventions and codes to make it clear to the audience of their genre. R&B have typical conventions such

as girls, wealth and power. Within the Show Me video, it conforms to Jason Mittells theory because the video is filled with girls dancing to the boys, wealth such as the gold chains that the males are wearing and also Chris Browns 5 wardrobe changes could suggest wealth because he has lot of clothes. The boys show power within the video when on the roof singing to the crowd below them because the low two shot emphasises the dominance of the two artists compared to the audience. The Show

Me video has all the typical conventions of an R&B video therefore is ful filling a particular pleasure for the audience to consume.

The show me video does not conform to Rich Altmans theory because the R&B genre does not offer the audience set of pleasure. The show me video does not offer an emotional pleasure because it doesn’t make the audience

generate a strong response as to what a sad song, such as ‘Adele – Someone Like You’ might bring. The show me video does not offer an

visceral pleasure because the audience don’t receive an roller coaster ride and finally it does not offer an intellectual puzzle because there is no puzzle to be solved. Overall the Show Me video does not offer a set of

pleasure but it is rather aesthetic, which means the video is made to look good rather than mean something and produce a set of pleasure for its

audience.

Rich Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences 'a set of pleasure'Emotional pleasures; the emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.Visceral pleasures; (visceral refers to internal organs) Visceral pleasures refer to 'gut' responses and are defined by how the films stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed or a 'roller coaster ride'Intellectual Puzzles; certain film genres such as the thriller or the 'whodunit'  offer of pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and forecasting the end or the being surprised by the unexpected.