What makes a good Pop Promo?

A close relationship between the music and visuals is often beneficial to the success of a pop promo as it creates a feeling of cohesion and rhythm, for example cutting on beats or flashing up an important object or landmark such as in some Michel Gondy videos. It is also beneficial to maintain a close relationship between the lyrics and visuals as it can help to furhter translate the message the perfomer is trying to convey, for example when there is a lyric about heartbreak many pop promos often show someone experiencing that feeling which can create empathy amongst the audience.

There are many codes and conventions in different music genres which an audience will usually expect and desire, for example Heavy Metal and Rock bands often produce pop promos which are heavily performance based featuring them playing their instruments with kinetic gusto whilst their leas singer will usually leap around the stage attempting to encourage energy and enthusiasm for the audince watching. In contrast some performers rarely appear in their pop promos such as Fatboy Slim whose style of music is more electro based so he opts to produce more abstact videos such as his famous one of Christopher Walken defying gravity in an empty hotel.

This leads into the subject of 'star power' which is when a pop promo is more concerned with their own promotion than any artistic ambition. For example more indie bands such as Kasabian produce pop promos such as Fire which attempts to tell its own narrative of a bank robbery going wrong with guitars standing in for guns. These types of pop promos will often include more intertextuality such as references to films like being set in a creepy hotel in salute to The Shining, or referring to iconic TV programs such as Happy Days by being set in an idealic diner.

In contrast artists such as Madonna and Geri Halliwell produce pop promos that specifically show off their talents both vocally and physically to produce a larger than life image and nothing more than vehicles to showcase their attributes. Female artists and especially those in girlbands are more often than not prone to being exposed to close up shots of their bodies which are often adorned with very skimpy clothing. These pop promos are an example of voyeurism as they are dseinged to be consumed by a primarily male heterosexual audience whilst making many females desire to be more like them.