Codes and conventions of a music

video.

Music videos can be categorised in terms of style, this includes...

Narrative:

Music videos can contain narratives. This is when a story is told via the lyrics of the song. The actual music video works as visual support for the lyrics and therefore is of relevance to the lyrics. Narratives can be very beneficial as they can draw in the audience and engage them till the very end as they will want to see how the story unravels. Not only this, the audience may also be able to relate to the music video. This will in turn allow the audience to feel included in the music video as they can really give empathy toward the protagonist as they may have been through a similar experience. This is of importance as it follows the Uses and Gratifications theory, which explains why people use media.

Rudimental’s – Not Giving In music video is a great example of a narrative based music video, following to brothers on their journey to gain a better life.

Performance:

Not all music videos contain narratives, some just purely consist of a performance. This is wear the artist, sings (sometimes dance) their song throughout their music video, without any narrative being presented to the audience. A performance based music video can allow the artist to show off their personality and also their image to a greater extent (compared to a narrative based music video) as they are performing as themselves and not as a character. This is a positive thing as it will can allow their target audience to see the ‘real them’, which will allow the audience to connect with them on a deeper level as they are seeing what the artist is like in reality. Performance based videos also mean that the artist can show of their raw skills and talent, illustrating they are good at their job and do not need high tech editing for them to be credible. The only downfall of a performance based music video is that it can become very boring, which means that the audience will lose the interest very quickly and may not even watch it the whole way through. This can happen also if seen multiple times.

Performance based video can be seen in Green Day’s – American Idiot music video. To keep the audience’s attention they used quick cuts, multiple shots and also used props such as green water being poured all over the band.

Mixture:

Music videos can also be a mixture of a narrative and performance. This means that the video will consist of a narrative relating to the lyrics but will also contain footage of the artist just performing. These type of style videos will include short and quick shots so that both the performance and narrative can fit into the music video. A positive of music videos like this is that they include a range of different shots which are constantly changing, which on its on will interest and engage an audience more than say a performance based video on its own. It will also portray the artist ability in performing but also show that they are flexible and can also act if needed to. This will attract the audience, and make them want to know more about the chosen artist as it shows they are hard working and determined, which is credited within the general public.

Performance Narrative

Beyonce’s music video to her song Broken Hearted Girl is a prime example of a mixture of performance and narrative.

Camera is another code and convention of a music video, this also includes camera movement and camera angle.

Camera movement:

In every music video there is either obvious or slight camera movement. Camera movement includes panning, tracking, zooming (in or out), dolly, wipe and many more. Camera movement often illustrates the pace and tempo of a song, and can regularly be seen following the artists movements through out their music video.

Here the camera follows Eliza Doolittle while she is walking, which informs the audience of the pace/tempo of her song.

Camera angle:

Most music videos also contain multiple camera angles. Camera angles are used to portray a range of feelings and emotions to the audience. Angles include, extreme close ups, close ups, mid shots, long shots, canted angle, Ariel shots, birds eye view, etc. Many music videos include close ups, to maintain the attention of the artists emotions, mid shots to still maintain the audiences attention to the artist but also to set the scene, and also long shots, to mainly set the scene or as an establishing shot at the start of the music video. Camera angles can on their own spark multiple emotions and can put the audience at many different views, for example a close up on an artist looking sad can make the audience feel empathy towards the artist/actor. A great example of a camera angle can

be seen in Rudiemntal’s video to their song ‘Not Giving In’. This shot is at a canted angle which captures in a long shot one of the bikers friend being hit of his bike. This canted angle gives the audience a sense of distortion which the man who got hit would also experience, including the audience in this horrible happening which in turn allows them to feel empathy towards the person in the crash.

Editing is also another important code and convention of music videos.

Editing is an important part of a music video as it is an element that can help gain the audiences attention. Editing is varied throughout all music videos and can help similar genres differ from each other.

Editing can include, the piecing together of the shots so that they fit together and flow from one to another perfectly. This includes whether the shots fade, wipe or quickly cut from one to another, or it can include the effects that are added via CGI on the computer afterwards. Special effects can vary from making the lighting brighter or duller from adding in extreme weather conditions and natural disasters such as a volcano erupting or a snow blizzard.

CGI – special effects

Fading to next scene – shows passing of time

Sound:

There are only some music videos that contain diegetic sound. This is sound that the artist/actor can hear. Diegetic sound includes, traffic jams e.g. cars beeping, police sirens, birds chirping, the sound of people playing, the sound of bikes etc. This gives the audience a sense of realism, illustrating that the things in the video can happen in real life.

Diegetic sounds of a bike, cars driving past and police sirens can be found at the start

of Chase and Status’ video to give a sense of realism.

Mise-en-scene is also a very important code and convention of a

music video.Mise-en-scence covers a variety of important items of a music video. This includes, props, lighting, setting and many more.

Mise-en-scene is of importance as it can demonstrate the genre of the music video via its props alone. Props such as costume can automatically give away the genre, for example an artist dressed in black leather trousers, with a black top and studded jewellery would tell the audience that genre of music is heavy metal/rock. Where as if you saw a female in bright summery clothes you would think of pop music.

The lighting of the music video can also portray the mood and theme of the music video. High key lighting would portray a happy, positive mood. You would usually see this lighting in pop/dance music videos as these usually have lyrics of happiness and joy, where as low key lighting could be seen songs that have lyrics about sadness i.e break ups with a former partner. This is to portray the sadness and glumness of a song, as dark colours usually have connotations of sadness.

Examples of mise-en-scene in music videos

The high key lighting in this video which is the genre of pop/dance portrays a mood of happiness as it is matched with golden beaches and also bright blue seas. The mixture of setting and lighting match each other and therefore give of the mood that is wanted to the audience. This also matches the lyrics which includes ‘when every things wrong you make it right’, which shows that the song is about happiness and fun.

In the screen shot to the right, you can say a band wearing skinny, ripped jeans, leather trousers and also black tops. This song is called ‘The death of me’ by the band Asking Alexandria. The costume matches the tone of the song, as black has connotations of death and darkness, which the lyrics of the song is trying to get across.