Introduction to music videos: conventions, examples, form and structure

The conventions of a music video 

• A music video is an advert for a song
• Elements of narrative, often very loose
• A range of different shot types
• Performance shots 
• Abstract shots, e.g. establishing shots, B roll, colours…
• Lip synching 
• Costumes: elaborate, daring, stylish, cool
• Studio shots
• Continuity editing - cutting from shot to shot, going back top previous settings. 
• Short (3-3 and a half minutes)
• Performance and playing instruments
• A music video is an advert for a song
• Music videos vary wildly
• A combination of video and music in synchronisation 
• The song itself is the most important aspect 
• Performance shots/master shot 
• Elements of narrative 
• The performer is often the main character, and the focus of attention. They are cool and hot
• Abstract shots that construct an aesthetic
• Lip Syncing - mouthing along to the music 
• Costume changes 
• Cool and edgy costumes 
• Instruments and performance
• Fast paced editing compared to films or TV show (MTV editing)
• (jump cuts)
• Time and space are messed up, no need for chronology
• Personal address - looking into the camera, forms a connection 
• Eccentric film making techniques, including intertitles, different qualities of film and so on 

Music video analysis 

1. Performance 
2. Narrative
3. Abstract shots
4. Setting
5. Generic conventions
6. Representations 
7. Media language

JPEGMAFIA - 1539 N. Calvert

Experimental hip hop song. Video uses a number of experimental elements. The setting is indistinct and confusing, with a complete lack of background and harsh high key light on the performers.Lots of abstract imagery

A range of confusing MES, including colourful costumes, junked car seats and bare wooden tables with bottles of fortified wine, streamers and mess

The song sounds complex and druggy and psychedelic, which is typified through the non-continuous narrative of the video and the MES of drug use

The movements of the performers is exaggerated, erratic and chaotic, which is anchored through the use of visual digital glitches

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Around The World

A performance video with abstract elements. There is very little element of conventional narrative, but there are a number of trippy and psychedelic visual elements included, including the use of psychedelic colours, the band are glowing throughout the video, high key lighting, and abstract props

Costumes are sparse, with a big emphasis on the lead singer’s chest, which encodes openness, attractiveness, confidence and so on

Dinosaur Jr - Little Fury Things

Alternative rock - black and white footage, shot on 8mm black and white with scratches directly on to the film. Constructs an unsettling atmosphere. There are performance shots, though these are shot in ECU, with no lip syncing or even faces. This constructs an edgy and appropriate brand identity for the band. Use of abstract shots, and shots of cars and journeys constructs a narrative of travel. 

Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly

Genre - rock. This is encoded through some very conventional performance shots of the band playing live. However, this is predominantly a narrative video, telling a very clear and explicit story. A wide range of elaborate costumes are used, with every character played by the band members. Themes of drug abuse are explored through the medium of comedy . The performance shots are diegetically situated. There are themes of fatphobia in the video that would not be acceptable now. Additionally, the humour that comes from cross dressing may be seen as being politically incorrect. 

Diegesis - the world of the narrative. If something is diegetic, it is in the world of the narrative. Music videos are often very loose in terms of diegesis. 

Queen - I Want To Break Free

Rock - Encodes through gestures and themes of confidence. Here Mercury, who is muscular and masculine wears a stereotypically female costume in order to subvert expectations and to be controversial. This is a clearly queer representation of an out and proud gay ma. Yet the song is also about breaking free from stereotypes and prejudice.

Sabrina Carpenter - Feather

Pop. Range of shots and elaborate costume changes. For example, Carpenter’s funeral dress polysemically encodes both mourning for death and a fun and expressive personality, forming a binary opposition. Intertextual reference to a variety of horror films, yet the video takes a comedic mode of address. The video explores empowerment through sexuality and free choice. The video also explores the boundaries between our bodies and the attention that other people pay to them, and it explores the predatory male gaze theory in a comedic and yet violent way.

Ghetts - Twin Sisters

Rap - Uses typical costumes of the rap genre, with many different costume changes. However unconventional elements are constructed through the MES of fancy, even medieval costumes, which form a binary opposition with the sexually explicit lyrics. The video makes extensive use of bricolage, with many different genres, time periods and technologies, including AI in order to construct a minimal and classy aesthetic, which again conflicts with the lyrics 

Isabelle Adjani - Pull marine

Pop - Lots of elaborate costume changes and beautiful and fashionable outfits are highly conventional of the pop genre. However, the video is confusing, alienating, and extremely strange. The music video is absolutely rich in symbolism. The video is saturated in the colour blue, which constructs a polysemic set of readings. Blue is both symbolic of the ocean and nature, yet it is also symbolic of artificiality. For example, the scene with Adjani attempting to drown herself in a fish bowl is highly stage, and the fake fish made of chocolate suggests a perfect version of the singer that she is presenting to her partner./ It is a comment of objectification

Will Wood - Tomcat Disposables

Indie/folk - a handmade video, with every asset resembling children’s toys. The video is polysemic: it is both about the life of a mouse, yet it also considers issues of morality, of life, death, and the afterlife. A bittersweet mode of address. High key lighting casts shadows which constructs a sense that the mouse is the protagonist. Music videos typically feature performance, and this does not. This lack of conventions is typical of the brand identity of this 

Gucci Mane - 06 Gucci

Trap - Explicit representations of substance abuse and drug dealing construct a menacing atmosphere. The body language of of the performer is threatening and aggressive. He is hunched over. The costumes are extremely stereotypical of the genre, and construct a familiar and stereotypical mode of address to the target audience. The audience expects these genre convention, and they are given them. 

Leanna Crawford - Still Waters

Worship pop. A clear narrative is constructed between the young performer and the adult performer. We cross cut between them, which encodes how God’s teachings have informed her. The video is humble, simple straightforward settings and costume. The iconography of the performer submerged in water will be clear to the audience: it is symbolic of baptism and faith. 

A$AP Rocky - Sundress

Alternative hip-hop. Video uses mixed media and a bricolage approach to film making. For example, the film itself has been scratched and altered. Artefacts such as pops, scratches and cigarette burns construct both a chaotic mode of address, but also a nostalgic one. Switching from analogue footage to digital footage also constructs a complex sense of nostalgia. 

Lorde - Green Light 

Pop. In the video, the performer moves from city streets to clubs to club toilets, constructing a cheap, rough and grimy mode of address. However, the music video focuses almost exclusively on the performance of the artist. This video combines performance and narrative in equal measures, as Lorde herself is the protagonist of the narrative. 

Dio - Holy Diver

Performance - centres on the main singer, who adopts the main character of the narrative and the performance, and both these elements are blended

A stereotypical representation of early 80s metal music, constructed through big hair, swords, armour

However, music video lacks guitars, drums, and microphones, making it reasonably unconventional

Uses the visual conventions of fantasy and barbarian films 

However, the MV does not have a clear and compelling narrative, but tells it’s story instead through MES, setting, iconography and aesthetic. We have a ruined church, some scruffy guys, swords, and that‘s enough

Dead Weight - Jack Stauber

Indie/synth pop. The MES of the video uses techniques such as VHS filters, visual static, and an ugly, messy aesthetic. Many animated elements construct a chaotic and complex ideology. Tongue in cheek and unserious mode of address, appealing to a younger audience? Or perhaps cool young fans of indie music. A representation of white, scruffy 20 somethings that subverts stereotypical representations of hegemonic attractiveness 

Queen - I Want To Break Free

Classic rock/pop. Queer coded. Mercury's costume is flamboyant, tight fitting and both masculine and feminine. His enormous moustache and muscular arms constructs a complex representation of gender identity. The entire song is about ‘breaking free’ from gender stereotypes for both men and women. Mercury symbolically breaks free from the kitchen, and also from gender stereotypes, and makes reference to drag culture 

Dominic Fike - Dancing In The Courthouse

Pop/indie/R&B. A sense of location is constructed through rapid fire montages, that utilise a range of ‘abstract’ imagery. These montages construct a sense of nostalgia. This is anchored through the 4;3 aspect ratio, cultural references and super 8 footage. Florida is represented as fun yet somewhat dangerous, with the MES of facial tattoos, which makes intertextual reference to Soundcloud and Emo rap. A binary opposition is therefore constructed through the music and the visuals 

BIG SHAQ - MANS NOT HOT

UK hip-hop. The video constructs a binary opposition between the thick and stereotypically British jacket of the performer, and the exotic setting that he is performing in. A sense of comedy and parody is constructed through the opening sequence that breaks the conventions of the music video. A single outfit is used in every setting for comic effect. 

Xiu Xiu - Scisssssssors

Noise/indie. There is little continuity between the song and the music video. The song is syncopated and panic inducing, and the music video uses the iconography of human sacrifice to construct an unpleasant and confrontational mode of address. The use of graphic imagery, for example a piece of string being pushed through a tongue constructs a horrific mode of address, and much of the MES of the video resembles a human sacrifice ritual. There are elements of performance, with the singer playing a range of guitars in a frenzied montage. However, we see no lip syncing. By breaking conventions, it constructs a unique and confusing mode of address. This music video is very unappealing and clearly criticises conventions of pop music 

Isabelle Adjani - Pull marine

Pop - There is an element of narrative, however the story is told through codes and symbols. Examples of symbolism in this music video include the endless calendar which symbolises endless boring days. The MES of the label on the label of the cassette reinforces the importance of the performer, and the floor falling apart is symbolic of a relationship falling apart. A visual motif of fish is repeated throughout the video, constructed a confusing and alienating. The date on the calendar is April 1st, April Fools Day… The colour blue is polysemic, connoting sadness, the sea, and artificiality. 

Tame Impala - Lost in Yesterday

Pop - An emphasis on lip syncing and performance throughout the video. The band’s performance is diegetically situated within the narrative. The narrative of this music focusses on time changing through different eras that is marked through the MES of costume, and the use of bricolage. The music video consists of 4 uninterrupted long takes 

Diegesis - in the world of the narrative

Diegetic sound, for example may include dialogue, car noises, and crowd noise. Non-diegetic sound is that outside of the narrative, for example the soundtrack of a film. 

Drake - God's Plan

Rap - Crowds of people surrounding the performer singing along is highly conventional of the rap genre. However, the music video encodes and coinstructs a representation of ‘normal people’. Here, the producer has selected a district of Fl;orida with a working class black demographic, to encode themes of charity. Here Drake is represented as a modern day jesus, changing the lives of ordinary citizens. Here, the message is one of generosity and compassion.

The Specials - Ghost Town

Reggae/ska -  The MES of suits is typicalo of the genre, however, here the connotation is different. The song is eerie, and so is the video. The montage of abandoned empty streets is creepy and alienating. The use of the car as a setting for the mastershot is overwhelming and claustrophobic. The light reflected in the window of the car is bleak, and constructs a depressing atmosphere. The abstract shots of shadows on a brick wall make intertextual reference to horror films.

The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist

Plunderphonics/turntablism - the video utilises a montage of completely disparate elements forming a complex bricolage. A variety of performers lip synch to completely disparate samples, constructing an aesthetic of confusion and abstraction. 

What things should you absolutely never do in your own music video?

• Actual consumption of drugs
• Breaking the law in any way 
• Overly edgy videos
• A single long take 
• Boring costumes and or no costume changes 
• Nudity
• Having absolutely no continuity 
• Not being genre appropriate in some way
• Sitting around in a field, eg Parker’s Piece
• Footage you haven’t shot, including home movies 
• Mid shot mid shot mid shot
• House parties 
• Complete lack of narrative 
• No performance shots