The Conventions of a Music Video

The conventions of a music video are:-

• Movement
• Narrative
• Band or Artist
• Intertextuality

Movement in video's is vital, as it should move along to the rhythm and Tempo of the song in the background, this can be achieved by the movement of the character or the the use of the Camera's when moving. Putting this all together can keep the audience interested by making it more exciting to watch. For example "Justice -D.A.N.C.E" is a great example for this.

  As you can see the characters and cameras move together, so the video is never still or boring, and also the characters walk in time with the beat of the music. Creating a good convergence when watching and listening to it at the same time. Meanwhile the moving, changing animations on the characters also helps with movement, as it helps the characters interact with each other, in time with the music. Therefore keeping the audience interested throughout.

  Using a narrative in the video is also great for keeping the audience interested, as it provides a storyline for the song in the video. The audience will be able to link the songs lyrics to whats happening in the video, for example in Maroon 5's "She will be loved".





  We hear the lyrics "look for the girl with the broken smile" and we see a close up of one of the female characters, suggesting to the audience the lyrics are about this character, and this all helps keep the audience interests and persuades them to listen more, hence then buying the single. Also in this video we see one of the conventions, by using the band in the video, lip syncing the lyrics, and acting as well. This is a great way to represent the band if they are knew on the scene so a new audience will be able to recognise that artist from then on.

  Finally we can talk about the intertextuality in videos where the producers will put references in the video, possibly to other videos or even movies. They can be quite obscure sometimes, so only sometimes the keener eye among the audience will notice them, thus making the video more entertaining for them when they see this hidden references. For example, in White Lies "bigger than us" video we see a quite a big reference to the movie E.T.


In this video, we have quite a subtle reference in the movie, but nevertheless for people who have seen the movie are likely to see the link between the too, even though it isnt as obvious. But once again, this is a great way of marketing and possibly causing people to listen to the song even more, creating even great popularity.