Generic Conventions Found in Music Videos

In all music videos you will find conventions found, however it mostly differs for the kind of genre used. So in most videos it will either go one of two ways; it will either have a narrative theme to it, a artist theme to it or both. The narrative would mean that the music video has some sort of storyline to it such as in Eminem's music video for 'Stan' it has a main focus upon the narrative of a fan. In this video the artist only appears twice, once when leaving the stage and when he's reading the letter sent to him. This is a narrative video.



A music video which mainly focuses on the artist would be a music video which would not have a storyline to it but instead has the artist/band lip syncing to the camera and possibly showing off their iconography which means their objects or sign that they are identified by. Such as in Miley Cyrus' music video of 'We Can't Stop'. In this video we see Miley just lip syncing to the camera and doing outrages things to the camera which would be her iconography.



A combination of both would be cuts between a narrative and shots of the artist lip syncing. Such as in Katy Perrys music video for her song 'Roar' within this music video we see the artist in a jungle being part of the narrative and her singing to the camera and certain parts for her lip sync.



Although these are general themes found in music videos with generic conventions they are distinguished by genre. Here is generic conventions found by genre:

Rap:

• Urban Area
• Bling/shiny
• Expensive items and vehicles
• Women shown in a provocative way

Pop:

• Close ups of artists
• Expensive video material
• Dance

Rock:

• Performance from band/artist 
• Sweat
• Sometimes deep narrative
• Instruments
• Audience shots
  
  
  
  
  

Singer/Songwriter:

• Mix between narrative and performance
• Acoustic guitar
• Calm, matching the songs
• Emotional and deep narratives
  
  
  
  
  

Indie:

• Different than all other genres
• Colourful
• Simple editing and video
• Starts from fading from black
  
  
  
  
  

Daniel Andrew and Charlie Mower