Codes And Conventions Of A Music Video

Considering I am going to construct my own music video, I will need to know the codes and conventions of one to be able to make mine seem professional and actually look like a successful music video. After doing some research and watching a lot of video, I found some conventions that frequently occur in music videos, they are;

• The 4 Key Concepts (Mise-en-scene, Cinematography, Editing and Sound)

• Narrative

• Performance

• Cameo 

• Animation/CGI 

Four Key Concepts 

I have generated a quick presentation below to explain the four main concepts in more detail and I have also provided some music videos as examples to help you understand how these four concepts work in a music video. Here is my presentation:

 

Narrative 

The large mass of music videos will include a narrative which is basically just a story within the music video. These are used because they keep the music video interesting and will engage the audience as there is a purpose to what they will be watching. Some narratives will be mixed within the song, but other times there may be cut scenes with some of the characters talking - this has been done to create a stonger narrative and to allow the audience to understand what is occurring before the song has even begun. In addition, some narratives will complement the lyrics of the song and other won't - it is beneficial when the narrative does complement the song because when the audience listen to it somewhere they would be able to visuialise the music video because the lyrics tell the story. Also, it will help the audience interpret the meaning of the song because some people can find it hard to understand the meaning of a song, or there may be many different interpretations of a song and the audience will want to know the original meaning. 

Here are some examples of music video that include a narrative;

McBusted - Get Over It

Taylor Swift ft. Ed Sheeran - Everything Has Changed

Performance 

In the majority of music videos there will be a performance from the artist where they will commonly be singing their song - these performances can be presented in different ways, but it usually depends on what the song is like. Some music videos will have the artist singing the song themselves, or sometimes there could be a child singing the song which may have been made to represent the artist at a younger age. The artist will generally appear in their music video as it s good for promotional reasons because they may become more well known if more people watch them in their video and will later be able to recognise them. Moreover, some videos will just be performance and there may be no narrative in it - these are usually created because they allow the audience to understand the artist more. Performance can also be shown through the process of dancing as this is often an emotional element and the choreography may have created meaning behind the dance routine. Sometimes if there is no performance, the video being watched could seem very dull because it could all just be one story when the audience may want to watch someone performing. On the other hand, it could also be tedious to watch just a performance because there would be no big change and it will all all seem very repetative. When there is a performance, the lip-synching is the most important part as this will reinforce the fact that the artist is the singer of the song.

Here are some examples of music videos that include performances;

Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls

Angels and Airwaves - Do It For Me Now

Cameo

A cameo is when a well known person will appear in a music video, in this case it is usually famous actors or other famous musicians. This idea is beneficial for both the artist and the famous person featuring in the video because they will both be promoting themselves and expressing themselves to the audience - this is also advantageous because when the audience see someone famous in a music video they will often want to tell their friends about it because they presumebly weren't expecting it -this will spread the word about a certain music video and will again, be a promotional technique for the artist and the person featuring. In these videos, the people featuring in it won't generally do much, they will usually just be part of a narrative and sometimes, if there is a talking scene, they will be talking in it but they are in no more than that. However, some music videos will involve famous people who are lip synching the song that they are featuring in, but the audience will know that they are not actually singing it. 

Here are some examples of music video that include famous/well known people;

Carly Rae Jepsen - I Really Like You

Michael Jackson - Black Or White

Animation/CGI

In some music videos you may not get the artist performing and instead could get some animations, or perhaps it could be an animation of the artist that performs the song. This is appealing towards the audience because they will be able to watch something new and diverse which may have a story behind it. In addition, some music videos may use CGI to create unrealistic features and even though it may not look real, it is interesting for the audience because they are able to see effects or features that may not exist in the world. Sometimes these music videos can bring animation and reality together which is engaging towards the audience because it is again something different and also for the simple fact that it is interesting to know what could happen if reality and the idea of dreams came together. These type of music videos are often quite costly, but they consistently do well and keep the audience wanting more like them because they are so diverse.

Here are some music videos that use Animation/CGI;

a-ha - Take On Me

Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)