Codes and Conventions of Music Videos

Camera shots

Generally, a lot of music videos contain a lot of close up shots, particularly of the instruments in which the artists are playing. This can often be to show the emotions of characters in narrative based videos or to please the audience and show the artist/band's face. High angle shots are used too where often the camera is on a crane looking over the stage, getting a wide view of everything on show. Pans and tilts moving from different performers, especially in the case of a band as they often pan from each member of the band. 

Editing

Conventionally of a music video the editing often involves lots of jump cuts and cutting to/from different narratives or angles which is done to keep the audience interested and at ease. Other forms of editing also includes split screens, this shows more than one angle to the video. This also helps attract the viewer's attention. If the music video is narrative based, split screen editing allows it to tell two stories rather than just one. When a video doesn't have as many cuts it can often be because the artist aims to create a mood. This style of editing is much more common in female solo artists music videos who appeal to a wide audience.

Mise-En-Scene

The importance of mise-en-scene tend to depends on what what music it is and what genre the music may fit into. In the indie genre the artist/actors in the video would usually stick to one outfit but in pop videos the artists especially could wear 2-3 or more. Usually in narrative based videos costume changes don't occur. The location also depends on what type of music video it may be. Narrative based videos genuinely tend to include more than one location but performance music videos usually just focus on one setting (the stage). Mise-en-scene can be a significant way of how the artist may be portrayed by different audiences when watching the video. For example, high-key or low-key lighting could represent the different between whether the video/song is quite dark or positive. 

Styles of Music Videos

Music videos can be categorised as there are many different types of music videos that people choose to have. These include:

Performance based - this is where the video focusses on the band or artist playing the music and singing the song. Close up shots of the singer or band allow the audience to feel intimacy with them. Typically, fans of artist's quite like performance based videos as they'd rather see the band/artist themselves. Performance based videos can be made on a fairly cheap budget. An example is Peace with their single 'Follow Baby'. 

Narrative based - Videos that tell a story as the music video progresses. Usually the story being acted out in the video is based on the meaning of the lyrics in the song. These videos are used quite frequently and in various different genres too. There are a number of different theorists of narrative based videos including Todorov who suggested that these types of videos are split up into different parts. The video begins in a state of equilibrium where everything if fine. Then, an inconvenience or problem occurs which has to be solved in order to return to the original state of equilibrium. An example of a narrative based video is Tame Impala with their song 'Mind Mischief'.  

Narrative and Performance based (Hybrid) - Music videos that show the artists performing yet also tells a story simultaneously. These videos give the artist much more freedom as they can practically include what they want. Again, audiences like a mix of both narrative and performance as they get to see the band play as well as there being some sort of storyline to it. An example is the Rolling Stones with their latest song 'Doom and Gloom'. 

Cameo performance based - Videos that the band features in however does not perform. These videos are quite common. Audiences tend to enjoy seeing the artist or band member(s) acting as a character in the video and it can often keep them interesting. An example is 'Suck it and See' by Arctic Monkeys. 

Animation based - The music video is created digitally. With the advancement of technology and CGI, animation based videos have become more and more common. It can be very effective in many cases and the editing can suit the audio very well. This is an example, it's the music video to 'Feels Like We're Only Going Backwards' by Australian modern psychedelic band Tame Impala.