Music Video conventions

These are the 5 main elements which go into making a music video.

The Lyrics: are there to create a mood or establish an emotion or a sense of subject rather than a logical meaning. In ever genre of music there is a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics, within the video, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.

The Music: maybe emphasised in the video by the band actually performing or dancing in instrumental parts of the song. The lyrics do not always match the pace and so the editing may reflect the music where as the shots match the lyrics. For example Crying Blood by VV Brown.

The Editing: always follows the pace of the music and so if the music is slow then the editing is slow and vice versa. Some music videos contain fast cut montage sequences which makes the view want to watch it more than once in case they have missed something the first time.

The Camera Work: will change depending on the genre of the music. The movement, angle and shot distance would be very different between Pop and Metal videos.

The Genre: of the music determines the conventions used in the video and the target audience. There are many different genres of music these days and they all have their own set of codes and conventions which a viewer would expect to see. The mise-en-scène, lighting, editing and camera work would be different depending on the genre of music is playing, for example a Rock video would not have bright colours and the artist in highly branded clothing like Hip Hop videos are.

Music videos today are used to promote the artist or band and help sell their records. When an artist or a band first start out they often have videos which do not have a narrative and just show the artists performing, this is so the artist can attract a wide range of viewers and the viewer can start to become familiar with the artist. When the band or artist is better known they can use a more of a narrative approach to their music video which allows them to interpret the lyrics in a more literal way making more of a short film then a music video. If you take Lady GaGa for instance in her first video “Just Dance” there was not much of a story and it was more about her performing. The camera shots used where mostly close up so that the viewer could familiarise themselves with her. As she has become more well known her costumes have become more extravagant and eccentric and if you take her latest video “Telephone” you can see that it is a much longer video, it has a storyline and there are lots of shots of her body parts and extra actors rather than her face.