Music Video Conventions

Since the first music video was aired in 1981, they have continuously developed with more money being poured into their production with bigger effects and more exotic locations. As well as this, a number of key features can be identified. Music videos are commonly regarded as a promotional package that further promotes the artist. It is notable in a very high proportion of music videos how there are many close ups of the artist performing the song which is done to further present the artist and cause them to be an icon to fans. As well as this, there are many other conventions of music videos that a generally followed by all video directors:

• Lyrics: lyrics are important in every single song as they are used to establish a general feeling/mood/sense of subject rather than having an actual meaning behind them.

• Music: the tempo of the music often drives the editing of the video. More upbeat, club songs have quick editing in order to match the pace of the music, whereas a slower song, a more relaxing one, would have little cuts and transitions. An example of quick editing to a fast tempo is Scooter's The Logical Song, and an example of a slower, more relaxed song with few cuts and little editing would be a song by someone like Adele, such as her song Someone Like You. It is also apparent how the slower songs appear to have a lot of fades as a transition whereas the faster songs seem to maintain a quick cut to the different shots.

• Genre: this might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and editing styles. There would be no point in having a song that would play in clubs with a video that was of a man walking down the street. The video would be more of people in clubs and dancing. Before a video to a song is released, then someone should be able to identify a rough outline of a video by listening to a song and identifying its genre and relating it to other videos and songs out there.

• Editing: a common form of editing is known as a fast-cut montage. This is when many images and shots are rendered in quick succession making it near enough impossible to grasp the first time it is viewed. This would then cause someone to want to re-watch the video. Re-watching videos and re-listening to songs is a brilliant way to get people to enjoy songs even if they did not the first time round. A fantastic example of this now, is a song by X-Factor contestant Cher Lloyd. When she initially introduced her song and video Swagger Jagger, it was immediately put down, but after continuous plays on both the radio and music television channels, more and more people started to like it. The video can be found below.

The above are only rough conventions of a music video that have been identified. Andrew Goodwin also wrote about music videos in his book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'. Below are the conventions that he identified within music videos:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre charasteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band)
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)
5. There is frequently a reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc)

IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT A MUSIC VIDEO MAY CONTAIN ALL OF THESE CONVENTIONS OR JUST A FEW OF THEM.