Music Video Codes and Conventions

PREP MUSIC VIDEO CODES AND CONVENTIONS

To prepare for the exam, we look at the media language of music videos, such as their codes and conventions below. For prep, copy the points in colour then add your own points in black.

1. Performance - the singer / band are seen to be singing and playing (including lip synching), to provide authenticity, so that followers believe in the talent and can see their star. Record labels sign stars and promote them to ensure sales. Avril Lavigne sings throughout the video using a mike and draws a huge crowd of fans around her when she jumps onto a car roof in the street. She sings with great passion, energy and conviction, holding the mike close to her mouth. Close-ups show her every word (lip synching is a feature of music videos.) She performs for her fans and for her 'boyfriend' the sk8er boi who features in the narrative. Screens often feature in music video and the sk8er boi is videoing Avril Lavigne as he gazes adoringly up at her. She returns his gaze as she sings about 'we rock each other's world'. The performance element creates authenticity (fans have proof of her talent) because we see her sing. 

2. Star - use of close-ups, sometimes direct eye contact with audience, to build relationship with audience. When Avril Lavigne starts singing there is immediately a close up. She is using this eye contact to grab the attention of the audience and to tell the story in a somewhat cocky way. In the close-up's she slightly leans into the camera and is somewhat aggressive towards the girl who turned the Skater Boy down. She is also building a relationship with the audience and letting them into her life. There are plenty more close-up's and these close-up's help us feel like Avril Lavigne is telling us the story directly and almost as if she is telling us not to do what the girl did. She is often scowling and snarling and crowing towards the girl, making her feel bad for turning down the Skater Boy and boasting that the Skater Boy is with her instead now. 

3. The visuals (what the star and other characters are seen doing) illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics (the 'story in the words'). Illustration = the visuals play out the story more or less literally; amplify = the words in the lyrics are only the starting point and the story develops in other directions; contradiction / disjuncture = the visuals do not interpret the words of the lyrics and may even show something contradictory. There is a mixture of visuals amplifying the lyrics and sometimes the visuals show disjuncture to the lyrics. The main example of this is when she is talking about how the girl who turned down Skater Boy. Instead of showing the girl sitting at home with a baby, Avril is jumping on top of cars and driving around with her friends, boasting about how the girl made the wrong decision. At the end the visuals are amplifying the lyrics because she is singing triumphantly and defiantly towards the police. 

4. The narrative usually features the performer in 'real life' situations but often with experimental types of film making such as hand-held, dramatic camera angles, symbolic codes and lighting There are a lot of wild and experimental camera angles. This along with the fast paced music and cuts amplify Avril Lavigne's personality and her life. It also amplifies the boastfulness of the story. At the end a hand-held camera is used for a close-up on Avril Lavigne. She talks about how she and the Skater Boy are in love, crowing to the girl that turned the boy down. 

5. The visuals are usually cut to the beat of the music; the editing is often fast-paced; there is often use of montage, ellipsis and intercutting, stylish effects. Especially in the opening of the video when it is an instrumental, there is a huge amount of cutting to the beat. As people see advertisements for the concert and as Avril's gang set up the concert, there is a series of fast paced cuts which are dictated by the music. The cuts are fast paced because the music is fast paced. The gang are making out their territory and the somewhat aggressive music ties in with the seemingly aggressive nature of Avril's tribe. At the end when the band are performing on the streets, Avril is dancing, jumping and punching to the beat, as are the crowd of fans. 

6.Refrain - repeated chorus, sometimes with variations The chorus is more or less repeated the same except a few lines are changed. At the start Avril sings about how the girl turned turned Skater Boy, Later she sings about how that boy is now famous and finally she sings boastfully about how she is now with Skater Boy.