Music video conventions and why genre is important.

1. What is a dance music video?
By Chloe Carman
“Music Video is not primarily a
commodity form but a promotional
one.”- Andrew Goodwin, 1992

2. A music promo video is a artistic image product to
accompany a pre-existing piece of music to
encourage sales of the song, artist and albums. The
video constructs an image for the artist/band
performing the track as well as marketing their
other existing products and giving them a fan base.
The style and content of the music video generally
fits the brand identity of the band/artist.

3. • Music videos can be divided into three sub-
genres:
• Narrative- tell a story
• Performative- shows the band/artist performing
• Conceptual- There is no story as such but the video
follows a theme or abstract concept.

4. Performative/Performance
Performative- performance is when the video consists mainly
of the artist continuously performing the song in the video, but
there is no narrative to it or any other scenes in the video. This
style of music video isn’t as common, as music videos that
solely dedicate to the performance are not as popular due to
the target audience struggling to engage with the song or
video. A good example of a Performative video is Beyoncé's
‘Love on top’. This example consists of Beyoncé dancing and
singing along to her song along with other dancers. There is no
narrative with in this video, however they used costume and
lighting to display the performance in a creative way, making it
more interesting to watch.

5. Narrative
Narrative music videos follow a story line that either matches or
relates to the lyrics of the song. There are two types of narrative:
Linear and Fragmented. A linear narrative follows the basic story
structure of a beginning, a middle and an end, and flows through
the story as the song progresses. A fragmented narrative is one
that jumps from scene to scene and doesn’t follow the same
structure. The order of the scenes are usually mixed around, for
example you could see the end before you watch the beginning.
An example of a Linear music video is Katy Perry’s ‘Thinking of
you’ as it follows the story from beginning to end.

6. Conceptual
Conceptual is when there is no story line to it,
and the video itself is quite abstract in the way
that you have to work out what’s happening in
the video. An example video is Tinnie Tempah’s
‘Pass out’ video, as the choreography, the song
title and the setting don’t match up.

7. Mixture
A mixture is combining two or more sub-genres
to create a unique and more interesting style to
a music video. This can include performative and
narrative, so you have a story happening, but it
cuts to the artist/band singing the song, or have
a conceptual piece with no narrative, but on the
odd occasion cut to the singer. An example of
this is Kelly Clakson’s ‘Since you been gone’

8. Dance music video
A Dance music video can be a cross between the sub-
genres depending on the content. If the video has the
artist performing in the video along side other dancers
than its performative, however if its just a dancer and
the artist is not present (for example Sia's ‘Chandelier’)
then it comes under the sub-genre conceptual. The
benefits of making a dance music video conceptual is
that the audience has to work out what’s going on, and
they have to think deeper into the meaning of the song.

9. Cameo
Cameo is another style of video where the artist
features in the video, however they do not
perform in it. An example is Drake and Rihanna’s
‘What’s my name’. They are both in the video,
but at no point do they perform.

10. Camera Techniques
The way the camera is operated is essential for
the production and the style of the video.
Different angles, shot and movements can give
the video a different effect and style. Generally
music videos contain a variety of techniques to
make the video more interesting to watch, and
to make each video unique and to fit the genre
and the artitst/bands style.

11. Camera shots
Music videos feature various shots to connect
the audience with the mood of the video.
Camera shots include:
Very wide shot
Wide shot
mid shot
Medium close up
Close up
Extreme close up
Over the shoulder shot
Cut in

12. Camera angles
There are many different angles used in the production of
music videos to convey different meaning, and to make the
video more aesthetically pleasing to watch. Angles include:
Eye-Level
High Angle
Low Angle
Bird’s Eye
Slanted

13. Camera movements
The camera moves to follow the artist or to follow the story so the
audience know what is happening. Movements can include panning
and tracking. A director can chose between following the narrative wit
a series of cuts, going from one shot to another, or to move the
camera with the action.
Pan- The camera scans a scene horizontally. The camera is on a tripod, which
operates as a stationary axis point as the camera is turned, often to follow a moving
object which is kept central to the frame.
Dolly/Tracking- The camera is mounted on a cart which travels along tracks for a
very smooth movement. Also known as tracking.

14. Editing Techniques
Final cut pro is a music video editing software that we can use to edit
our music videos. Other software’s include iMovie.
Editing is the middle process of production that puts together the shots
and cuts to create the final product. The transition between the shots is
edited to make the whole video run smoothly. During editing you can
add effects, cut down clips and add the tracking to create an
aesthetically pleasing video to watch.

15. Mise-En-Scene
The Mise-en-scene for a music video include: lighting,
setting/location, props, costume, hair make up and colour. These
elements are affected by the genre of the video. For example a Punk-
Rock band would use dark colours such as black, deep reds, in their
clothes and backing to match their image. They are used to convey
the importance of people and their style.
Lighting- how the scenes are lit portrays the mood of the song.
Location- the setting of video enhances the narrative of the story and
tells the audiences what the video is about.
Props- the props can often symbolize the mood of the video.
Costumes- what the artist/performer is wearing is key to promotion
as it gives the artist an image that they can sell.
Hair and make up- enhances the artists image.
Colour- matches the artists style/image and gives that artist a look.

16. Notions of looking- stereotyping
Notions of looking elaborates upon stereotypes and lables that you
may associate with a certain artist or group. The stereotypes are
usually taken advantage of in many videos in order to appeal to
specific target audiences.
A good example of this is ‘Knock you down’ by Keri Hilson ft Kayne
West, Ne-Yo. This questions the dominance of females. Towards the
beginning, we see an intimate hug where the man leans away
portraying a cool and steady stance, while the female looks
vunerable. This ideology allows males to idolise masculine behaviour
as it guarantees a form of supremacy, this is enhanced as Keri lies
seductively on the bed which questions whether she is a sexual object
that that lures in the male audience.

17. Nevertheless, this perception is altered when Keri
is the result of male confrontation. Keri stands tall
by maintaining her posture that women idolise.
This is then reiterated through the lyrics, the fact
that its written in past tense signifies the end of the
relationship. Her dominance is then shown, this is
followed by demonstrating her resilience and
power to change her current circumstances. From
these levels, it is clear in saying that Keri is more
commandeering as she looks down upon her
partner.