Music video codes and conventions

CODES AND CONVENTIONS What makes a music video?

A music video has different purposes, for example promoting a single, album, artists or band, entertaining the audience or presenting the meaning of the song through the use of images. The structure of a music video is usually that within 3-4 minutes the video combines a mix of narrative and live performance as well as other visual imagery including animations or computer graphics. Other elements that can be included in a music video on top

of narative and performance are thematic and symbolic. Thematic is where there are several common themes throughout the video, which depend on the genre of music. Symbolic involves symbols heavily used in the video to put the meaning across. These symbols can be different, such as the setting, costumes, makeup, props or just the aesthetic look of it. On the next page I will discuss these different features of a music video in further depth.

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Different types of music videos

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ped from lo e v e d t s r fi s o e Music vid nd are a , s e c n a rm fo r e videos of p tage or in s n o r e h it e t e s y usuall ge of n a r a s e d lu c in a studio. This band or le o h w e th g in w o shots, sh rs. e b an Dance m C e m e t W n re s fe p if d e: The Vam c n a close ups of the m r o f r n Pe ppear in u a n a c t s ti r a e th Of ten elds or in fi s a h c u s , s e c usual pla film in it to promote the film. Ex. g n o s e th g town, lip syncin amples of this include “I See Fire Ed Sheeran” which was in the second “The Hobbit” film and “Skyfall - Adelle” which featured in the latOften the video tells a story that est James Bond film, “Skyfall”. relates to the lyrics. For example for a love song the video may show a girl dumping or boy or something along those lines. It can be a mini film with a beginning, middle and end. If the song features in a film, it would often feature clips of the

Narrative

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Symbolic

OTHER CODES AND CONVENTIONS:

Symbolic music videos use different symbols to build up meaning in the song, shown through settings, costumes and props, such as using a graveyard as a setting could represent death. There is also usually a frequent use of montage, creating meaning which sometimes is contradictory. Furthermore the lighting is often used to suggest mood. It is also fast paced with ony a few seconds per shot to build up meanings, that both support or contradict the lyrics. dict the lyrics.

Thematic

There are lot s of dif ferent themes in music videos , usually var y ing depending on the ge nre of music . For exampl Heavy Metal e videos usual l y go for performance do minated clip s, whereas rap has a lot more urban a nd “street” images. Fur t hermore clip s with dance routines atyp ically feature in pop music videos, u sually by fem ale ar tists.

• Visually stylish - explores the semiotics of ‘mise-en-scene’ in an artistic manner.

• The cutting of shots is always in time or related to the rhytm of the music.

• The shots interchange between performance and images of the story.

• Experimental use of camera shots and editing; such as handheld camera and distortion of colours.

• Unlike other media music videos break therules of continuity editing, and instead uses a lot of jump cuts.

• Digital effects are largely used.

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