Conventions of Music Videos and Iconography

A convention is a rule or norm followed throughout a process by all people that take part in a process. Conventions do not always have to be followed, but they usually are as it makes production much easier.

The main music categories in the mainstream music industry area are:

• Pop
• Dance
• R&B
• Hip-Hop/Rap
• Rock
• Punk
• Country & Western
• Folk
• Jazz
• Blues
• Latin
• Gospel
• Reggae
• New Age

Codes and conventions within music videos vary depending on the genre of music and the pace of the music. However, there are basic norms that are followed throughout the process, these include:

• The style of the music video
• The camerawork
• The editing techniques used
• The sound effects used
• The mise-en-scene
• The stereotypes and countertypes

Camerawork:

Camera angles play a key role in music videos as they can emphasise certain points of a persons body or they can exaggerate the genre of music. Extreme close ups focus on an artists face on its own and almost always emphasise a certain part of the face like the mouth, nose, ears or eyes. Close ups are seen in every music video as they show a part of a persons body with great detail. These are extremely important to a music video because they emphasise the emotion of the artist more than any other camera angle. A mid shot is usually used to emphasise a part of a persons body from the waist up to the head, again, these are usually always used in performance based music videos as they add to the emotion of the artist and emphasise the genre of music. Wide shots are used to show the audience where the artist is, but still keep that artist at the centre of attention. These types of shots are always used in performance based music videos

Camera movements add effects to music videos and allow for the viewer to gain a different view of the scene. The most common camera movements are pans and dolly shots. Pan shots allow for the viewer to see different parts of the stage or music video at different times. Dolly shots do the same but have a different effect and this is because they follow an item or person. They let the viewer see what the person or item is doing and gain a greater understanding of the item or person being filmed.

Editing:

Editing is an extremely important part of a music video and this is because so much can be done to alter a video in post-production. They allow the artist to add their own works to their music video which makes it stand out more in comparison to other music videos and makes it unique. Additionally, editing can make the music video both faster and slower in terms of pace (by increasing or decreasing the amount of cuts) which goes a long with the pace of the music which adds a dramatic effective. It is common to see different backgrounds used in music videos and this is as a result of the use of green screens. Colours can also be altered and exaggerated in post as a result of colour grading and this is commonplace in music videos  as it emphasises emotions throughout the video.

K.S.I's 'Creature' music video is a heavily edited music video which features colour grading, visual effects and green screens:

Sound:

Diegetic and non-diegetic sound are the two different types of sound in media. Diegetic is the sound that has not been added in post, non-diegetic sound is sound that has been edited in. In music videos non-diegetic sound is always present as the song is added on post. Diegetic sound is rarely used and is only usually used for a narrative based music video. Sound parallel is where the sound in video matches the mood of the video. For example, a sad song  with a slow pace and tempo would be dark and slow - e.g. Adele's 'Hello'.

Mise-En-Scene:

Mise-en-scene always differs per music video and is usually the biggest factor that indicates to the viewer what the genre of music is. Props, hair and makeup, location and costume are the main factors of mise-en-scene and they also allow us to see the emotion of the character, artist or artists in the video.

Stereotypically, rock music uses dark makeup and long hair with clothing that is very minimalistic, e.g - the Foo Fighters and their song 'The Pretender'. Pop music stereotypically uses very light and colourful colours with a slower paced video, minimalistic makeup and a high use of props. This is iconography, iconography is the visual images and symbols used in a music video, for example, the costumes, props, colours, costumes and stars. They are commonly known as genre indicators as one can usually infer from the props, colours and costumes what genre the music is.