Conventions of The Music Video

A convention is defined as a normative example, like an unwritten rule or standard of similarities that across the range of music videos. In modern music videos most producers, directors and bands are likely to follow these conventions to make sure the quality of the video they produce is on par with that of other bands, however often it is found that bands will try to break these conventions to differentiate themselves from other bands and make a unique and,on many occassions,more interesting video.

The three main conventions that are followed by most modern bands are:

- Most commonly the video will almost always contain the band/artist performing alongside the track being played.

- Clips/images portraying the nature of the lyrics through a narrative/story etc.

- An art clip that shows creativity and almost all of the time does not represent anything that associates with the music/lyrics, this is often used to show individuality and creativity.

Although the concepts behind the music video os particular bands will be very individual each bands video will to fit into one of the three main pure forms, these three forms are listed below with examples of each.

- A performance clip:

Throughout a performance video the band/singer is seen to be performing their track, usually in a setting that represents the image the track aims to portray. A performance clip can be classed as a song performance, a dance performance of an instrumental performance, below is an example of a performance clip.




- A Narrative clip:

A video in which throughout the video a short narrative is being acted out, often by the band but sometimes by different actors. An example of a pure narrative would contain no lip synching and no sign of instruments. Below is an example of a narrative in which it shows no clips of the band performing their track.



- An art clip:

An art is a video containing no obvious narrative, lip synching or instrument playing. Below is an example of an art clip in which the video shows creativity and is pleasurable to watch, althugh shows no actual represntation of the song.