Music Video Form & Conventions
Understanding the formal conventions of a music video is important as it will serve as a blueprint for my production. These include; a clear narrative, performance, and a main star image/lead. Depending on the genre, the MISE-EN-SCENE can play a key role in further adding to the narrative and performance. For example, a rap genre would commonly be set in the city with graffiti present all around and the main star image dressed in baggy clothing, bling, chains, and caps. However, if it were folk, it’d be set in the natural beauty of the country.
Some music videos also use lip sync as a way of singing the song whilst recording and, anachronic, which is when the narrative takes you across time whether that be a flashback or flashforward.
When deconstructing a professional music video, you can identify the thematic relationship between the song and the narrative. They can either be illustrative, amplified, or disjunctive.
Illustrative – the narrative closely echoes the lyrics & music.
Amplified – narrative (whilst inspired by the song) adds a new element to complement the song.
Disjunctive – narrative has little relationship with the song and feels rather random.
As my first piece of research for my own music video, I analyzed 3 different professionally-made music videos, which varied the content ratio of narrative and performance.
The music videos I used were:
Reflection
This has helped me have a clear understanding of the formal conventions of a music video, in preparation for creating my own. It’s allowed me to shape my ideas around having a good thematic relationship between the narrative and song whilst conveying a deeper meaning through the performance.