CODES AND

CONVENTIONS OF
MUSIC VIDEOS
By Sophie Nash

WHAT ARE CODES AND

CONVENTIONS?
The codes and conventions of a music video are the different
techniques used to construct meaning within them.
These techniques can be divided into two types Technical and
Symbolic.
Technical Techniques
This is how meaning is portrayed through the use of technical
equipment. For example, the way in which the camera angles are
used, whether the sound is diegetic or non-diegetic and the genre.
Symbolic Techniques
This is the way of showing meaning beyond what you can see. For
example, facial expressions, gestures, poses and mise en scene.

WHY DO WE NEED CODES AND

CONVENTIONS?
We need codes and conventions to allow the audience to
become familiar with a particular genre, and they can do
this through identifying the range of conventions within
a genre.
This, in turn, provides a structure for the audience to
understand.

THE CODES AND CONVENTIONS

The codes and conventions of each genre vary, although, the common
ones include:
The Style
The Camera
The Editing Techniques
The Sound (non-diegetic and diegetic)
Mise en scene (this includes lighting, props, hair and make up,
location/setting and colours)
Stereotypes

TYPES OF MUSIC VIDEOS

Performance
This is when the music video mainly consists of the
artist/s performing in the video. A strong example of
this is Beyonce Love on Top where the artist is
continuously dominant within the video performing the
song. In terms of narrative, there isnt one. This style of
music video is uncommon, as watching an artist
perform their song throughout the video is not highly
popular as the target audience will not be able to form
personal relationships with the song or the narrative.
Although, in this case costume and lighting frequently
changed to make the typical performance video more
creative and therefore more interesting to watch.

TYPES OF MUSIC VIDEOS

Narrative
A narrative music video follows a story line but there are
two types of linear, these being: Linear and Fragmented.
A linear narrative starts a story at the beginning, goes
through the middle and ends at the end, whereas a
fragmented narrative does not. An example of a linear
narrative is Taylor Swift Love Story as it plays a story
from the beginning to the end.

TYPES OF MUSIC VIDEOS

Combined
This is a combination of performance and narrative and
is usually found in music videos as it is hard to have
either pure narrative or pure performance. By using
both it makes the video more interesting and engages
the audience more. An example of this is, Avril Lavigne
Girlfriend

TYPES OF MUSIC VIDEOS

Cameo
Cameo is where a band / artist features in the narrative
but does not perform. A clear example of this is Rihanna
ft Drake Whats my name where both artists are
dominant in the narrative but do not perform as such.

CAMERA
The way in which the camera is used is a crucial part in
producing a music video. It has the ability to create and
encode different effects through the different angles and
movements. Most music videos use a variety of camera
shots, angles and movements to create different
techniques and to make the video unique from the
others readily available online (Web 2.0 theory).

CAMERA SHOTS
Music videos feature a number of shots for various
reasons, to relate with the audience and allow them to
build personal relationships with the artist on screen
(Uses and Gratifications theory). Typical shots that you
would normally find in a music video include :
Very Wide Shot - This is where the artist is barely
visible in shot and the emphasis is on the location
or setting.
Wide Shot This is where the artist is shown taking up
most of the shot but the location is still focused on.

CAMERA SHOTS
Mid Shot This shows the artist from their waist
to head and focuses mainly on the artist but
still giving an impression of the location.
Medium Close up This is halfway between a mid shot
and a close up, showing the artist from chest to head.
Close up This shot shows the artists face or can
show an object that the artist is holding, or
something the camera focuses closely on.
Extreme Close up This shows the artists face extremely
close, e.g. eyes or mouth to identify something it can
have the effect of showing the audience the artists
thoughts and feelings or even showing a lip sync, which is
popular in music videos.

CAMERA SHOTS
Over the shoulder shot This is a frequent shot used
in a narrative based music video, usually when the
artist is acting and speaking to another person you
tend to see an over the shoulder shot to display the
conversation, or to show what the character is looking at.
Cut in This shot can be used in music videos to denote
something that the lyrics might be saying, for example
her hair falls perfectly without her trying and a shot of
hair is shown. It shows the object in detail,
similar to an extreme close up, but used very quickly, and the object is one that
directly relates to the subject / narrative.
These shots are the basic shots you can expect to see in most music videos.
Additionally, there are more creative techniques available to display a scene
and one of these is camera angles

CAMERA ANGLES
This is the way in which the camera is positioned
determining the angle of the shot. There are many
existing camera shots used in the production of music
videos to convey different images and meanings.

CAMERA ANGLES
Eye-level This is a very common angle as it is
the real world angle that we are all used to
seeing, it shows all subjects as we would
expect to see them in real life.
High Angle This is where the camera shows the
subject from above and the camera is angled
down towards the subject. This gives the
connotations of the subject being venerable,
less significant or even submissive.
Low Angle This is where the subject is shown from below with
the camera tilting up, giving the connotation of the central artist
being more dominant and powerful.

CAMERA MOVEMENTS
The camera moves to follow the artist, narrative or performance of the artist.
These movements include panning and tracking. A director may choose to
use this technique to show time passing and show the story being told as a
series of cuts, going from one shot to another. Some examples of camera
movements are:

Pans This is where the camera scans the scene

horizontally. The camera is placed on a tripod,
which acts as a stationary axis as the
camera is being turned, often to follow
action or a moving object which is kept
central of the frame.
Tracking / Dolly This is where the camera is
mounted on a cart which travels along the
tracks and gives the impression of very
smooth movement (also known as tracking).

EDITING TECHNIQUES
Final cut pro is the music editing software we will be using the
complete our A-level project.
Editing is the most essential process of the making of a music video.
It gives you the ability to edit, restructure, cut scenes down, add
special effects and sync to the soundtrack. The editing consists of
the following techniques : jump cutting and CGI effects etec. An
example of this is in the music video Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding
I Need Your Love. It includes multiple jump cuts and many
montages of shots. This provides the audience with the connotation
that the artists live a fast paced life and enables the audience to
decode subliminal messages which many have been encoded by
producers when making the decision to include a lot of jump cuts.

SOUND
Sound consists of two main forms : diegetic and non-diegetic sound.
Diegetic sound is sound which is already present within the scene
itself, e.g. a gunshot. Non-diegetic sound is sound later added in
during the editing stage of production. Sound is crucial within a
music video as the video itself is a marketing tool used to get people
to listen to the music. Sound can be edited to provided the audience
with different effects to the basic soundtrack we normally hear. For
example, increased bass.
Sound parallel sound is when the music matches the mood of the
video. An example of this is Ed Sheeran Thinking Out Loud as it is
a relatively slow song and the video is of the male artist and a
female slow dancing. Another example is if the song was a sad song
then the video may show the weather being stormy and rainy
(pathetic fallacy). Some videos have diegetic sound where they
include sound from the surroundings, such as crowds screaming if it
was a performance video to make it seem more realistic. However,
the soundtrack itself is non-diegetic sound.

MISE-EN-SCENE
Mise-en-scene within a music video focuses on the following :
lighting, props, costume, hair and make up, location and colour.
These elements and the way in which they are used usually depends
on the genre of the music video and the style. These elements are
also important in contributing towards the codes and conventions of
the chosen genre. They are also used to convey the importance of
the artists within the music videos. They are also used to represent
certain characters in different ways.
LIGHTING how the scene is lit (artificial lights / side lights)
PROPS performance equipment / band merchandise
COSTUME outfits to conform / conflict the genre
HAIR AND MAKE UP the individual style of the artist to conform /
conflict the genre
LOCATION concert halls, city, beach the streets
COLOUR desaturated / low key / high key

LIGHTING
This micro element sets the initial mood of the music video and generates
certain thoughts and feelings associated with a specific social group. The
lighting in a music video can create different views by the way in which the
scene is lit, it allows the audience to recognise the genre and style of the
music video. The use of high key lighting signifies to the audience a fun,
lively video. This can be achieved from natural lighting e.g. the sun or
existing light sources or alternitively by using artificial lights e.g. strobe lights
or coloured lights. These would be most likely to be seen in hip hop music
videos but are very rare in, for example, country music videos. You can see
the different types of light, which is dependent on genre, in the 2 examples :
Rihanna Stay and S Club 7 Bring it all back

PROPS
In most music videos sometimes props are used to
illistrate the narrative, and when linking the lyrics with
visuals, props are commonly used. The props in a music
video add to the entertainment side and can be used to
show a creative side. It can also be used as a marketing
technique where for example, in Little Mix Hair GHD
straighteners were used which therefore is promoting
that specific brand.

COSTUME

Costume is usually used to depict certain characters in a particular

way. Different artists wear different styles of clothes to represent
their personal character and the role in which they are playing
within the video. A strong example of this would be Lady Gaga
Bad Romance as she is notorious for wearing dramatic clothing to
match her flamboyant star persona.

Another example is One Direction Best Song Ever where they

mock how boy bands are typically expected to dress and have
done in past generations. This is potentially widening their target
audience and it is appealing to those who knew of the previous boy
bands within the video.

HAIR AND MAKE UP

The way in which an artist has their hair and make up is
done for a specific purpose, it can be reflective of an
artists personality or can be done as a way of attracting
the audience, depending on the target audience. Hair
and make up is just about style and fashion and what is
popular at the time. It is extremely important that the
appearance of the artist is of a high quality as they will
be modeled by the audience. It can be displayed in
many ways for many different reasons and below is
some examples of how hair and make up can display
different images.

LOCATION
The location / setting of a music video can not only show the
audience where the artist is, but can also decide on the genre.
For example, the beach or in the car, at a party would usually
signify a pop music video due to the happy connotations that
they give. If the music video was filmed on the street or in a
modern house, this is a typical setting for a grime / hip-hop
music video. The location has an influence on the genre but
can also be purposefully shown to relate to the song. Below is
an example of 2 music videos : Katy Perry Roar and Nelly
ft. Kelly Rowland Dilemma.

COLOUR
Colours are shown through virtually everything in a music video,
ranging from lighting to costumes to hair and make up to locations
etc. Colours are used in our everyday life and we generally see the
use of colours throughout music videos to portray normal daily life.
Colour can also be incorporated to encode emotion and feeling. For
example, black and white neutralises colours and can be a way of
showing a time lapse (flash back), it can also be purposely done to
signify an emotional scenario, for eample, Beyonce If I Were A
Boy depicts a relationship between two people, the entire video is
black and white which signifies a fading relationship. If this video
was in saturated colours the complete perception of the narrative
would change and not be so significant.

STEREOTYPING
A good example of stereotyping within a music video is
Katy Perry Last Friday Night (TGIF) which conforms to
the typical ideology of teenagers. From beginning to end
we see a teenager (Katy Perry) having a party whilst her
parents were away. This is a common way in which
teenagers are represented due to the exposure to social
media and how content (including addresses of parties)
can be spread within seconds.