Conventions of Grime

We have decided to have our main focus and attention in the genre Grime. This has a cold artistic approach allowing us to convey a message and meaning through our techniques and themes used. Grime focuses on everyday life (reality) so viewers can relate and understand the feelings given off. The age range is generally adoesolents/teens/young adults. From research the  narrative is a story the protagonists life and we learn more about what they mean in their videos; they do this by the sense of lighting as dim lighting can show emotions are low and unsatifed. In contrast artfical lighting brings satifiaction and enjoyment as an emotion. A lot of these videos use the women as the subject and they have power to make the male feel a certain way by actions. In our video we want to break away from the typical storyline and bring a sense of self completion and how an individual has power upon themselves. We want to use a women as a reverse role. As a team we hope to present an effective music video that uses a range of techniques to portray this such as word play/pun. The videos heavily use what we intend on including in our music video. Here are music video from our chosen artist "Not3s".

In these videos it is evident they use :

Reality setting (estate)
Panning - Hand held, always moving, tracking movement
Eye contact
Members of the public
Close up on clothing
Natural lighting
Activities in the video
Camera shots change increasing speed
Props (cars, phones, bags)
Casual clothing



Here are other musicians using similar techniques:

Settle/gentle/nuetral lighting
Close up to facial expressions
Off balance camera angles
Iphone, cigarrete, cars
Home/residentual environment
Urban
Water
Refelection
Eye contact with viewer

-Yxng Bane

Water
Off balaence camera angles
Blurred/ out of focus
Reflections of mirrors
Close up on clothing
Public members
Dim harsh lighting
Visual effects (over lay)
Cars


-Skepta

Members of society
Normal casual clothing (some designer representing accomplishment/relating to words)
Slow-mo
Washed out lighting alongside artificial
Sync with lyrics
Protagonists centre of attention
Eye contact
Reflections
Urban
Repetative hand guestures

-Dave




Now reviewing my research it is evident that most grime music videos include the same objective as the protagonist telling a story using camera, lighting, props and reality a technique. This helps us conduct a video in order to satisfy the audience and fit the conventions with the genre. We have decided to challenge certain themes to make our piece original and unique; attempting to be more attractive to the audience to get more viewers.

Codes and Conventions 

-Codes 

In the world of media codes represents the feeling and meaning behind a music video. This can be shown in two ways: Technical, for example lighting allows the audience understand how a person feels (dark - harsh reality, bright - happy energetic feeling).
The second way is symbolic this is how the protagonist is presented on camera and read in depth of the character. Clothing, facial expressions and movement of the body projects their feelings/mood.

-Conventions 

Conventions are the ways and order a video is conducted or descions based. Each genre is specific to their needs to convey and fall into the correct convention.

Grime music technical codes : close up of the face, panning (hand held movements), dim/natural lighting, quick transitions also overlapping.

Grime music symbolic codes :  Facial expressions, eye contact with camera, sync with lyrics, hand repetitive movements, character centre of attention, human interaction. 

Grime music conventions : urban environment; on an estate, cars, the public, possible use of alcohol/ciggarettes/drugs. 

Questionnaire/audience feedback

My group and i went to a grime event - Yxng Banes concert. Prior to this we created a questionnaire for other attendees that were personal but not in depth. We designing the questions we thought of factors that attract a the grime genre. Knowing the age range could help us attract our audience by using more age appropriate gestures, so when regulated it would pass. Gender was another concern o we knew how to convey our narrative. Gender can help determine our content included and stereotypes that we could conform or challenge. Ethnicity we also considered to examine the diversity within the audience so we cannot discriminate or offend. Finally, we consider the financial state to see if they are eligible to purchase a magazine or digipak. Here is our example and answered questionnaire.

Our second half determined the success in the audience purchasing a digipak. This was our layout for the information required. Here is an empty and answered questionnaire.

Magazine Advert and Digipak Anaylsis

Audience moodboard

Digipak moodboard

Audience analysis

In order to understand the target audience of my music video, I need to be able to understand the age range, and what sort of people are inclined to view the video. Therefore, I am looking at market analysis of people who consume the product in which my music is intended for. In doing this, I will be able to understand the age/sort of consumer that I am trying to aim for.

A bit about Grime...

• Many grime artists, are often unemployed and make grime music on a casual basis.
• According to Sasha Frere-Jones, grime has developed a fierce sound by "distilling" rhythms to a minimal style resulting in a choppy off-centre sound.
• Grime is described as a cross-pollinated genre, taking influences from a variety of different cultural styles as well as musical ones, and is therefore still in many respects considered to be underground music, even after mainstream exposure.
• It exists in a largely informal economy in which most artists make their debuts on independently-produced battle DVD'z that, like mixtapes which are sold out of barbershops & make their way around the city.
• Grime is looked upon very unfavourably in the media, in which its lyrics have been described as being "vulgar"
• Grime can often be dark & aggressive, featuring MCs as opposed to singers & getting rid of R&B influences of earlier the UK Garage Band.

Typical consumer

• Black males between 16-21 years old.
• non-mainstream music genre and is therefore very popular w/ males & isn't marketed on a mass scale, (however, in the most recent years it has become more and more mainstream/popular)
• In the most recent years, females have also taken an interest in grime, despite it being more centred around males, introducing female artists into the game.

Grime and Violence

• grime is viewed upon very negatively by the government. The Home Secretary David Blunkett described the lyrics of grime artists as "appalling.
• Similarly Former minister Kim Howells made a statement in 2006 that grime artists were helping to create a culture "where killing is almost a fashion accessory." Howells went even deeper into the issue making comments that some grime supporters claimed to find "deeply racist" referring to popular artists & crews as "boasting macho idiot rappers"
• One particular MC Kano has taken a bashing from The Times who berated the decision to have Kano promoting a new government scheme describing it as using a rapper famous for his "violent & obscenity-strewn lyrics"

• Although grime is thought of as a violent genre, it has become more accepted in the past 5 years. It has become a huge part of the British and African culture, and the younger generations mass consume the unique style of music that we know as grime.

Development of grime

Grime first emerged in London's East End in the early 2000's. It developed out of earlier UK electronic music styles, including UK garage and jungle, and draws influence from dancehall, reggae and hip hop. The style is typified by rapid, syncopated breakbeats, often features an aggressive or jagged electronic sound. Rapping is also a significant element of the style, and lyrics often revolve around gritty depictions of urban life.

The style spread among pirate radio stations, such as Rinse FM and underground scenes before achieving some mainstream recognition in the UK during the mid-2000's through artists such as Lethal Bizzle and Wiley. Other prominent artists include JME, Skepta, Stormzy and grime crews such as Boy Better Know. In the mid-2010's, grime received popular attention in North America. The genre has been described as the "most significant musical development within the UK for decades".

 A Little background on grime:

Grime has origins tied with UK pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM. The style was known by a number of names, including 8-bar, nu shapes, sublow, as well as eskibeat, a term applied specifically to a style initially developed by Wiley and his collaborators, incorporating dance and electro elements. This indicated the movement of UK garage away from its house influences towards darker themes and sounds. Among the first tracks to be labelled "grime" as a genre in itself were "Eskimo" "Ice Rink" and "Igloo" by Wiley,  "Pulse X" by Musical Mob and "Creeper" by Danny Weed.

How Grime has developed:

Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, kano and Lethal Bizzle were among the first to bring the genre to mainstream media attention in 2003-2004, with their albums Boy In da Corner, Treddin' On Thin Ice, Home Sweet Home and Against All Oddz respectively. Dizzee Rascal gathered widespread critical acclaim and commercial success with Boy In Da Corner winning the 2003 Mercury Music Prize.

Despite the popularity and commercial success of individual artists, many underground Grime artists failed to find a platform. In response to this, Boy Better Know's Jammer created Lords of the Mics in 2004 which was an annual DVD series, showcasing underground artists participating in battle rapping and also giving them a platform through interviews.

Lord of the mics was originally sold by Jammer locally but eventually helped smaller grime artists find a platform through selling the DVDs to independent record stores throughout the UK and eventually helping  grime form an internet following from uploads to Youtube.

Grime has since received exposure from television stations including Channel U (now known as Channel AKA), the BBC's youth-oriented digital radio station BBC Radio 1Xtra, in particular Charlie Sloth's show, which showcases various grime artists such as Stormzy, Bugzy Malone and Akala, with his popular segment "fire in the both" and the MOBO awards, which launched its first "Best Grime" category in 2014 (prior to this Grime had been merged with 'Best hip-hop" since 2011) when the show was being broadcast on BBC One.

Grime is a subgenre that draws from a wide variety of influences. The genre's popularity grew exponentially in the United Kingdom.
This united many different music scenes, allowing for it to spread in the same word-of-mouth and mixtape-based style as hip-hop, yet still appeal to fans of electronic music. it allowed for more electronic music artists to incorporate stronger African and Caribbean influences in the future. Grime has received a lot of attention all around the world, but nowhere as much as in the UK. Much like many other less mainstream forms of British electronic music, its main scene and fan base remained in the United Kingdom.

Over the years:

2015  -Following Stormzy's performance of "shut up" during the ring walk to Anthony Joshua's Heavyweight boxing match with Dillian White, Stormzy gained attention and pushed the song further up the charts, peaking at number eight in the UK Singles Chart.

2016  -February -  Ministry of Sound and DJ Maximum released a grime compilation entitled GRIME TIME, which topped the UK compilations chart

May - Skepta's fourth studio album, KONNICHIWA, entered the UK Album Chart at number two. The album explored grime's relationship with the United States, and features appearances from ASAP Mob members Young lord and ASAP Nast as well as production and vocals from Pharrell Williams.

Drake later signed to Skepta's Boy Better Know Label. He later included Skepta and Giggs on his More Life album.

The song "KMT" featuring Giggs peaked at nine on the UK Official Singles Chart.

2017   -February - Stormzy's Gang Signs & Prayer was the first grime album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart.

June - British Phonographic Industry reported that Grime sales had risen over 100% with physical sales growing over 109%, Digital sales 51% and streaming up by 138%.

Sales Increase of Grime

Stormzy - number 1 on official album charts

Skepta's Konnichiwa album cover

Lyrical Annotation/analysis