Music Video Codes and Conventions

Performance

A performance music video is when the video consists of the artist performing their song with little narrative and a no story. An example of this is ‘McBusted - Air Guitar’ where the video is different shots and angles of the band playing the song. This type of video isn’t very common as it’s quite unpopular as it doesn’t engage with the target audience as it becomes quite boring as there is little going on. This type of music video allows the artists to use costumes and lighting to present themselves in a creative way to make it a more interesting watch.

 

Narrative

A narrative music video is when the video shows a story all the way through the song. It could include the artist acting in it. There are two types of narrative music videos, linear narrative whereby the story goes from beginning, middle to end, and then fragmented narrative where it mixes the chronology up. An example of a narrative music video is 'Elbow - Magnificent'. This type of video allows the artist to really portray how they want their song to be perceived by the audience, and if the song does tell a story it's a great way to visually represent it.

Mixture

A mixture music video groups together the performance type and the narrative. This is the most common music video as it is difficult to have a full video of just performance or just narrative, it also makes it a lot more interesting for the audience as there are cutaways to the artist performing and then brings them back to the story. A good example of this is 'Billy Joel - Uptown Girl'. 

Concept

A concept video is usually a video based around a single idea or concept that is very abstract and surreal to watch for the audience. The unique content attracts the audience and keeps them entertained to carry on watching the video unfold. An example of an obscure concept video is 'Laurie Anderson - O Superman'

Andrew Goodwin
Andrew Goodwin wrote a book called Dancing in the Distraction Factory in 1992. In this book he writes codes and conventions that every music video should include:


1)Music video should convey genre characteristics
2)There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
3)There is a relationship between music and visuals
4)Demands from the record label will need lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop a motif that will be repeated across their work
5)There is often intertextual references to films, tv shows and other music videos.