Understanding of Genre

 Codes and conventions of Dance genre:

Dance music became hugely popular during the 1920s. In the 1930s, called the swing era, swing music was the popular dance music in America. In the 1950s rock and roll became the popular dance music in America and in the late 1960s saw the rise of soul and RnB music. Dance genre began as an underground genre of music, however it quickly became a mainstream genre as huge mainstream artists such as Madonna started to use electronic pianos and baselines in her music. Since the original creation of dance many sub-genres have been made such as, House, Techno, DnB and more.

Dance videos are normally upbeat and feature either groups or individuals dancing and partying. These music videos tend to lead to social issues and occurrences that young people may find themselves in including, sexuality, love, drugs and alcohol use. Videos normally feature a clubbing atmosphere with scarcely dressed women, UV paint, dark lighting and alcohol consumption. 

In the dance genre, the setting the music video would be filmed in would be most likely be a club or house party to stick to the party atmosphere. Females normally wear short dresses and wearing bare minimum to sexualise themselves, this is a common stereotype of women who are often sexualised. They wear bare minimum to appeal to the males, this concept is called the male gaze by Laura Mulvey. Females also can be seen looking seductively at the camera to sexualise themselves.  Lighting is mixed with high key and low key lighting, although low key lighting is used more often with strobe lighting. 

Here in the music video 'You & I' by Bru C, this is a prime example of a female in minimal clothing looking at the camera in order to sexualise themselves and try to grab the male audience attention .

As dance music is very fast paced, the editing usually matches it, therefore a lot of fast cuts are used, this gives a sense of realism and give off a club feel. High angle establishing shots are used to show setting and show the viewer the environment. 

Editing in dance genre music tends to be cut to the beat of music. However the editing changes most when the song 'drops'. This is when the song changes tempo and sound, it changes the atmosphere in the video as well. Rapid editing is used in this moment. 

Here is another shot that signifies the setting and atmosphere for a dance genre music video.