First Ideas of chosen music to include within my brief and the characterists of Pop Music.

The first song i initially thought of was 'Every time' - Performed and written by 'Britney Spears.' Pop music is the commercially friendly genre of music which was at it's prime during the mid 90s and started to become less popular during mid 2000. Pop music seems to be strongly targeted at a mainstream audience, starting from the age around 13+. These are some of the conventions of the genre and the artist performing music from the genre:

The music is extremely marketable - Most of the songs within pop music, is about having a good time, either at a club or a party. It's aiming to appeal to the mainstream audience who enjoy going out and having a good time, as they can connect with the subject the artist is singing about. The music is usually up-beat with including a feel good factor which wants to persuade the audience to get up and dance and just have a good time.

A few lyrics from songs which back up this convention are:

Lady Gaga - Just Dance. Where the lyrics state:

'Just dance, gonna be okay,

Just dance, spin that record, babe'

Pop songs can also be a ballad as well, mostly about love, these slow songs can be used within teenage TV dramas such as Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill (in which included Britney Spears' - Every time.' to target their audience if they're not completely perfect to dance to in the night clubs. A pop ballad usually shows a softer side to a mainly pop genre situated artist, and can create a connection from the artist to the audience, in which a fast, dance track wouldn't allow. The slow ballads can also get remixed therefore they can be played in the dance clubs. Slow songs are usually about love or romance with the opposite sex, and telling a story about a problem within their relationship or how they're moving on and are not strong.

A few lyrics from a slow pop song:

The pussycat Dolls - Stick Wit Chu:

'I got you,We'll be making love endlessly.

I'm with you (baby, I'm with you)'

The artists are strongly image driven- Through lyrics, live performances, music videos and other forms of exposure: the image of a pop artist is as strong as their musical material. They have to remain edgy, idolising and remain at the top of the news. Artists including Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Madonna have been strongly criticised for their image upon their CD covers, which conventionally are there to sum up the genre and type of songs in which the artist performs, not surprisingly all represent a 'sex' image and all are understandably controversial, however with this media attention, drew more attention onto your music and products which you wish to sell.

Through a pop artists performances, a rememberable, strong and highly choreographed routine seems conventional. With the MTV awards mainly there to award mainstream artists, an amazing performance is essential. Usually, these performances will be again, controversial so media attention is assured and possibly a new song will be performed. Promos for the awards ceremony will include mention of a big pop artists will be performing, thus the performance will create suspension and more media attention.

Recently, Lady Gaga performed at the MTV's Video Music Awards, performing her recent song 'Paparazzi' which featured Gaga performing in her underwear dancing around the stage. However more shockingly towards the end she pretending to knife herself in result, fake blood was covering her body. In the last stunt, she pulled out all the stops by replicating a position in which looks like she's hung her self suicidally. This created a media storm, from charities complaining 'she's romanticising suicide to the younger generation' to artists fighting in her corner defending her performance and labeling it as 'art, visionary and smart.' In other performances has seen the collaboration of two or more artists performing together, artists such as 'Madonna, Britney Spears, Missy Elliot and Christina Aguilera' performed at the 2003 MTV VMA awards, in the end of the performance they all exchange a same sex kiss, which once again created a media storm of attention.

Their music videos have a combination of exposing and promoting their image, which they wish to shout and can include a story of the song. In many fast pop videos, choreography is strongly used, artists such as Justin Timberlake, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and Take That have all used choreography within their music videos. This makes the song seem more appealing for the clubs to play as if you view the artist having a strong dance to this song, and having a good time the audience will wish for that same feeling. The music videos will include shots of them 'Micky Miming' their song in either a close up or medium close up shot, this allows the audience to see their facial beauty and also allows the audience to become 'closer' to the artist, and see them in a light and performing in which they possibly wouldn't ever see in real life. Their music videos have to be edgy and entertaining in order to achieve maximum interest and media attention, all pop acts including Michael Jackson have created music videos to these characterises and have proved to work, as less interesting videos e.g 'One True Voice' seemed to have a cheap budged on their video therefore that was possibly part of the problem why they failed to become a success.

(Britney Spears - Me Against The Music)

(Michael Jackson's Thriller)

Other forms of exposure include television interviews, magazine interviews, documentaries and books which the artist may want to become involved with to create some media attention. Recently the boy band JLS have been on talk show after talk show promoting their new music, as well as promoting their new book. Controversial and shocking magazine interviews may be appropriate for the artist keen to promote themselves. A famous magazine cover was recently, Miley Cyrus when she appears topless for a magazine shoot and interview in Vanity Fair, she was just 15 at the time. It seems exposure and promotion has no limits, with even Britney Spears being a victim of this, as she posed in her bra for Rolling Stone when she was just 16. Pop music seems to attribute to bold statements in lifestyle such as: Sexual Expression which Madonna and Britney Spears are strong believers of, general individual expression and consumer habits which does seem to target such a wide audience.

The music is commercially friendly- Pop music is friendly enough to appeal to any gender of the mainstream audience. As i mentioned before, the music surrounds the idea of having a good time at a party or in a club. It doesn't usually mention anything inappropriated which could be deemed as offensive, political or religious, which makes it very 'friendly' and appropriate for many types of people within the mainstream target audience. The chorus usually involves the artists voice being layered which creates an overpowering catchy chorus which is used to embed into the audiences mind thus makes them singing it for the rest of the day. A song which recently made me do this, personally was Alexandra Burke - Bad Boys after a big performance on the talent show 'The X-factor.'

Pop music is appropriate for many things- Because of Pop musics friendly ideology, radio stations, music channels, adverts and films chose to play this music. Pop music rarely includes inappropriate offensive language, it automatically has a wider audience base, therefore adverts and films will chose to play either an instrumental for that certain popular track or include a section of the song within their advert, with that pop song attracting such a wide audience perhaps using that song within the advert will also attract attention by a wide audience to that certain product in which they are advertising. Also radio stations seem to play pop songs more, due to the fact the songs a hit with audiences as it's not censored with the high pitches 'beeps' therefore it's less annoying, rather than a song Eminem would possibly perform which seems to have every world censored out, which is defiantly more annoying than just listening to an easy flowing pop song with no gaps or 'beeps' censoring out certain words. Films may use that certain rememberable pop song to advertise their film, as, like in advertising, since pop music attracts such a wide audience base perhaps using that popular song within their film trailer, it may attract a wider audience response. They also use pop songs to identify a genre, usually within Action / Crime films, Rock music is played, whereas in Romantic Comedies, Comedies and general feel good films pop music is played within the trailer, which is one of the most popular genre of film in the world, as once again it's attracting the all important mainstream audience.

Pop artists can hired to promote a product- Artists from Michael Jackson to Pink have been known to be hired by an advertisement company to promote a certain product. The musical artist will usually sing a track and mime the song they've recorded whilst making the product which they're advertising the most important thing, which usually involved either Drinking the product, driving the product, using the product, wearing the product etc. Pepsi is a company, known famous for signing up big pop artists in the industry to advertise their product. Artists such as Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Beyonce and Pink have advertised the product where as 'Coca Cola' rivaled with Pepsi and hired the same type of musical artists which specialised and created music for the Pop genre, such as Madonna and Christina Aguilera. With their clean reputation, pretty face and positive messages in songs, these factors make them ideal role model which are usually approved by parents for their children to look up to, therefore having these role models advertise and 'be the face of the product' ensures the wide audience base which already follow these artists, especially the younger generations will ensure they will chose a certain product over another, as like music videos it has an element which allows the audience to become closer to the star, by drinking or wearing products we think the artist does, the audience will feel closer to the star.