Codes & Conventions of Music Videos.

A music video is a ‘distinctive art form which can allow really creative opportunities’ [1] and is of huge importance to any musician. They give the artists the chance to not only represent themselves, but their music, in a creative way not wholly provided by just the music itself. It takes a lot of meticulous planning to get the video right and therefore it is essential to first explore the main codes and conventions involved. To do so, I will look at Goodwin’s six main conventions of music videos;

1) Within a music video, there is a link between the lyrics being sung and the visuals displayed. For example if there is a storyline, the visuals will be either ‘illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics’.

2) There is also a link between the music and the visuals, for example if the musicians are talented with instruments, there must be at least several clips of these being played to demonstrate their musical personas.

3) It is highly likely that at some stage in the music video there will be intertextual references, whether it is another music video, a film or a television programme.

4) Therefore, it is also highly likely there will be reference to voyeurism, a different way of looking or gaining a perception, possibly on the way people are treated, i.e. ‘screens within screens’.

5) Usually, there will be a high demand of close ups on the artist or band and it is down to the record company to ensure this occurs. Following on from this, the musician may develop their own star iconography, thus over time they may develop icons that defines them in the media.

6) Finally, the main conventions of the music video hugely depend on the genre itself. Individual genres have individual ideologies and iconographies and therefore must be taken into consideration when developing your own music video and its genre.[2]

It is this last point that I will now develop in more detail through the brief analysis of two music videos from different genres. This first video is that of the number 1 in the download charts (week beginning 21st October)[3] and was a huge success almost automatically. It is ‘Bad Boys’ performed by Alexandra Burke featuring Flo Rida;



Alexandra herself rose to stardom from the television programme ‘The X Factor’ and therefore most of her music is mainstream and produced for her to sing thus making the genre of her music more so Pop. Looking at the mise en scene and costume, a link to the essence of the song is established as is with the lyrics, music and visuals, thus proving Goodwin’s conventions to be rather successful. Even just by looking at the video, the genre is established almost immediately. She sings throughout whilst dancing at the same time, always constant with the storyline of the song with no clips of instruments or performances, establishing she is a pop singer, rather than, for example, a guitar player. The easiest way of conveying the differences between genres and their music videos is to compare this to a rather different one. This next music video is Fairwell To The Fairground by a new upcoming Indie band called White Lies;



As you can see almost straight away, the genre is established through the mise en scene and costume chosen. The artists are independent, therefore for video has a much tighter budget consequently showing more clips of the musicians playing their own instruments, rather than ‘dancing’. The lead singer himself is pictured walking through a winter scene linking to the lyrics, this replaces the need for a main story line like most mainstream video productions. This particular music video is much more iconic, with shorter clips of breathtaking scenery, thus having a rather different emotional effect on the audience compared to the previous clip.

Therefore it is much easier to define a music video’s conventions based upon the genre’s individual demands. In conclusion, these six points made originally by Goodwin are good foundations for us to build upon when planning and producing our own music video. We can take into consideration the links between lyrics, visuals and music whilst also ensuring we please our genre’s audience with plenty of close ups and possibly hints of voyeurism and intertexuality.

[1] P. Fraser 2005

[2] Andrew Goodwin, Dancing to Distraction (2006)

[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/downloads/