section 5 codes and conventions

Codes and conventions of a music video


All music video’s we watched contained a narrative, narrative was usually simple and had a clear, beginning, middle and end in which the equilibrium was resolved. The narrative ranged between linear and non-linear although there is no specific right or wrong.

The visuals in the music videos we watched amplified contrasted (disjuncture) or illustrated themes in narrative or lyrics.

All music videos created a star image for either a main protagonist who featured in the narrative plot or a star image created via the portrayal of a music culture or scene.

There were some aspects of performance were used although there were no dance routines in the majority of video’s we watched apart from the chemical brothers where dancing featured in the narrative, dance routines are more common in music videos of the dance genre.

The videos we analysed contained little or no special effects, the special effects were relatively simple techniques shown through editing of the footage such as “cross fade” and “slow motion”
The editing always matched the rhythm of the music, there characters lips within the music video are always in sync with the lyrics.

Other aspects of editing used were techniques such as “elliptical editing” and “match on action”
Mise-en-scene is used in the music video is used to match the stars image to the genre of the music, for example in the Lilly Allen’s video Smile she is dressed fairly common with chivvy jewellery and sports trainers, this harmonised with the working class café and urban environment we see her in.

There was a wide range of camera angles in the music videos we watched, tracking shots were particularly common, along with close ups, and low angle shots of the star or other characters in the narrative to show who is an important or powerful figure in the video.

There is minimal interaction between the characters with in the narrative; there is either a direct or indirect mode of address in the videos, there was no preference between the two although those with a direct mode of address had a much simpler narrative than others.

Some music videos contain dialog in the begging or end of the video, although we did not see any examples of this.