General Conventions of a Music Video

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General Conventions of a Music Video

• Dress Codes of dress reflect the mood of the
  song.
• Lyrics Establish a general feeling/mood/sense of
  subject rather than a meaning
• Music Tempo often drives the editing
• Genre Might be reflected in types of
  mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and
  editing styles
• Camerawork Has an impact on meaning. Movement,
  angle and shot distance all play a part in the
  representation of the artist/band (close-ups
  dominate)
• Editing The most common form is fast-cut
  montage, rendering many of the images impossible
  to grasp on first viewing, so ensuring multiple
  viewing. Often enhancing the editing are digital
  effects, which play with the original images to
  offer different kinds of pleasure for the
  audience.
• Intertextuality Not all audiences will spot a
  reference, which would not significantly detract
  from their pleasure in the text itself, but
  greater pleasure might be derived by those who
  recognise the reference and feel flattered by
  this. It also increases the audiences engagement
  with, and attentiveness to the product.
• Movies Many music videos draw upon cinema.
  Madonnas Material Girl drew on the song sequence
  Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend in Howard
  Hawks Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
• Exhibitionism The apparently more powerful
  independent female artists of recent years have
  added to the complexity of the politics of
  looking and gender/cultural debates, by being at
  once sexually provocative and apparently in
  control of, and inviting, a sexualised gaze.