Music Video Conventions.

Conventions are a set of generally accepted norms or criteria within a piece of media.

All types of media carry there own set of conventions, therefore music videos obviously have their own. We researched music video conventions and below are the most common and universal. We need to know what the conventions are so we can look into which conventions to follow, and which to break to make our music video more post-modern.

• Lyrics: establish a general feeling/mood/sense of subject rather than a meaningMusic: tempo often drives the editing.
• Genre: might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and editing styles.
• Editing: the most common form is fast-cut montage, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing, so ensuring multiple viewing. Often enhancing the editing are digital effects, which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory· Visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and music· Genres often have their own music style/iconography· Close-ups should always be included· Intertextual references are also popular