Music video deconstruction: Country music genre and music video deconstruction

Music video deconstruction: Country music genre and music video deconstruction

Country music is one of the oldest genres of music. Originating in 1920s in Southern parts America,  country music is the most popular genre throughout the United States - more popular than other 'mainstream' genres. The defining characteristic of country music is an acoustic guitar, with just the vocals of the singer to accompany it. Country music has changed over the years, adopting a more modern style, mixing with other genres in order to attract a larger and more diverse audience.

Conventions of country music videos
- Tend to have a strong narrative aspect
- Set in very stereotypical locations, such as rural areas
- Mise-en-scen tends to be very traditional or set in an elder generation, e.g. Victorian
(The use of costume, props and set establishes this convention at the start of the music video)
- The artist usually features within the video mainly in the foreground while the use of lighting highlights the focus on the main artist more

(Carrie Underwood - Cowboy Casanova)



Taylor Swift has taken a modern day twist on her country style in order to keep it relevant and popular in the charts by adding the unconventional genres of pop and country together. This music video follows many conventions of country music whilst also following many upbeat conventions of the pop genre.