Task 2: Codes & Conventions of a Music Video

Codes & Conventions of a Music Video:

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium, and later with the launch of VH1. The term "music video" first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. Prior to that time, these works were described by various terms including "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional (promo) clip" or "film clip". In Chinese entertainment, music videos were simply known as MTVs because the network was responsible for bringing music videos to popularity in that country. Music videos are now known as MVs in Chinese entertainment.

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos do not interpret images from the song's lyrics, making it less literal than expected.

Codes = Equipment used cameras, also symbolic codes for example what the person is feeling and how we see that.

Convention = The way things are done within the video this also describes the genre of the music video.

I have looked at the different style of music videos, and the 3 main forms that they come in; Performance, Narrative and Image.
Performance speaks for itself, where the song is performed either straightforwardly in a concert hall or in a more exotic location and the emphasis is on performance.
Narrative is where the narrative of the song is played out or sometimes another separate narrative is told.
Image is where the content of the video does not relate obviously to the lyrics and there i not an immediate concert setting, what is emphasised is the image of the artist.

For every type/genre of music there is a different style of video. Some conventions even spread over into different genres. I looked at different genres of videos and the codes and conventions that go with them.

For example the conventions that normally go with Hip/Hop & Rap videos are; Girls, Money, Cars, Big Houses, Alcohol, Clubs & Bling and are normally narrative or performance based videos. Indie Band videos are normally on live stages and are quite performance based. Boy band videos are performance based and are continually flooded with clips of concerts, screaming girl fans and dance routines. Heavy Metal videos are surrounded by mosh pits, dark clothing and screaming rockers and are all performance based. R 'n' B videos are quite glamourised, include a lot of voyeurism and bling and are mostly narrative/image based.