The Codes and Conventions of a Music Video

The conventions of a music video vary depending on genre of music. However, some general conventions are: The artist is shown performing, the lyrics of the song influence what is shown in the video, the pace of editing fits the pace of the music, and the codes of dress reflect the mood of the song. 

Other key conventions we picked up are the that, to begin with, there is a theory known as the 'male gaze' in which many females are used in the music videos, in order to attract a higher audience from the male gender. Also, we picked up on the fact that there is almost always either a sense of the band/artist performing, or of a clear narrative, or in some cases these two different aspects are fused together into one music video.

One most notable artist used as an example of clear us of narrative is Kanye West, who tends to use high budgets to create very film-like music videos, such as his 34minute music video to his song 'Runaway'. 

Special effects and mise en scene are also key factors, with the latter playing an important role in almost all videos, whether it be the band's logo on the drum kit or a stellar location playing significance to the music video itself, whilst another common convention known as the 'mode of address' in which the singer sings to directly to the camera, is key in many performance style music videos, however some of this is not as commonly used in the dual performance/narrative style video, as the lead singer commonly addresses an on screen character with song.