Codes and Conventions of Music Videos

Codes - Equipment used cameras, also symbolic codes for example what the person is feeling and how we see that.

Conventions - The way things are done things are done within the music video, this also describes the genre of the music video.

The conventions of music video's can vary depending on the specific genre of a music video. However there are some general conventions of music videos:

◦ The artist/band are shown in the video, and usually predominate the video.

◦ The lyrics of the song influence what is shown in the video, what we see emphasizes the lyrics.

◦ The pace of the editing fits the pace of the music.

◦ The mise en scene reflects the mood of the music.

◦ There is often a mixture of the artist performing, as well as a narrative story line.

◦ Close ups of the artist/band.

These can be placed into certain categories:

◦ Narrative – A music video has a story/theme to it.

◦ Performance – Where we see the artist/band performing live.

◦ Mixture – With a mix of both narrative and performance qualities.

◦ Cameo – Where the band or the artist is featured in the narrative but doesn’t perform.

◦ Animation – Where the video contains digital features such as flash and stop frame.

Now we are clear on the general conventions of music videos, we can use these and ensure that we apply them to our own music video.