Codes and conventions in music videos refer to signs, symbols, and established practices that convey meaning. There are three main categories of codes: technical codes involving editing, camera techniques, lighting, and exposure that make the video visually appealing; symbolic codes including objects, setting, body language, and clothing that represent the song's narrative; and written codes such as printed or spoken language that provide verbal elements important to the song's story and genre. Common styles and elements used in music videos include interpretive, impressionistic, surrealist, allusion, inter-textual, and voyeuristic techniques.

2. Before getting in depth of codes and conventions of music videos,
we need to understand what codes and convention mean when
discussing music videos as previously them in the category of
magazines.
 Codes are how signs and symbols are put together to create
meaning.
 Conventions are rules or long accepted way of doing things
through repeated experiences.
In terms of music videos codes are divided into 3 further
categories
Technical Symbolic
Written

3. Technical codes include:
• Editing
• Camera techniques
• Lighting
• Exposure
All of these contribute to make the music
video visually appealing and adds to its
narrative and meaning.

4. All of these things describe the story being
told in the song and have a hidden
meaning such as through colors. For
example someone wearing red in the
music video may represent love and yellow
happiness.
The setting/objects, also known as mise-en
–scene visually represents the songs and
Symbolic codes include:
• Objects
• Setting
• Body language
• Clothing

5. They may include headlines, captions,
language style and speech bubbles. Verbal
codes, in the case of music videos, are
really important.
It’s the way how the singer sings according
to the narrative or genre of the song such
as if the song is about a heart break, then
the voice contains that aspect of pain. It is
how a good singer is distinguished.
Written codes include;
• Printed language
• Spoken language

6. Styles And Elements
• Interpretive:
How the viewer
interoperates
the music video
such as open-
ended.
• Impressioni
st:
This is when
the video is
more fantasy
based rather
than reality.
• Surrealist:
It is impressionist
dream like and It has
unreal elements.
• Allusion:
When the audience is
under allusion that
something will happen
but the story changes
at the end so it’s not a
sit first seemed.
• Inter-textual:
Inter-textuality is the
way in which one
media text is
referenced in another.
• Voyeuristic:
It is used in
psychology in terms of
explaining the
gendered pleasures
and refers to the idea
of gaining sexual
pleasures .These styles and elements are the basic foundations
of a music video.