Forms and conventions in music videos
- 1. Forms and conventions in music videos Charlie Brett
- 2. What are codes and conventions? Codes and conventions are used to help construct meaning within a media text. They help with realism and continuity. These can be split into different groups. The first being technical, and the second is symbolic
- 3. What is technical This is shown through the technical side of media. This including equipment such as camera and how they portray meaning through certain angles i.e. close ups for extreme emotions. They also consist of the sound whether that’s diegetic or non-diegetic, pace and style of editing, and influences of genre.
- 4. What is symbolic Symbolic is easier to spot than technical. This is because it uses our knowledge to associate meanings to what we see through facial expressions, body language, costumes, props, mise-en-scene- gestures etc.
- 5. Why use codes and conventions? It helps give the audience something to begin associating with a specific genre such as pop music having a choreographed dance routine, rap genre sexualizing women with men in chains and baggy trousers, and country stereotyping country backgrounds being cowboys. The ensure that the lyrics match with the visual concept
- 6. Performance Performance varies in all music videos. In pop videos we mainly see artists being involved within the narrative rather than performing for a live audience like we would expect to see in a rock/punk/metal video. For example in videos such as Taylor Swift “we are never getting back together we see her playing the main character as her performance. In other videos such as thirty seconds to mars “bury me” it follows a narrative with a live performance. This is used to help express the lyric deeper to the audience using visuals.
- 7. Narrative All music videos will follow some form of narrative whether that be a performance, dance routine, or just a storyline. There are 2 different types of narrative. The first is linear which is when a story has a start, middle, and end. This is apparent in “skater boy” by Avril Lavigne. The other option is fragmented narrative which is when there is no clear narrative or not an apparent one. These are mainly seen in dance routines such as Beyoncé “single ladies” video.
- 8. Cameo This is when artists are used to display there music and appear within the video but don’t perform. Such as Charlie Puth “we don’t talk anymore” but him and featuring artist Selena Gomez help the narrative but both never perform.