Part 1 - Music Conventions

1. Andrew Goodwin
Andrew Goodwin believes that genre in music videos should represent stereotypes
and the conventions of that certain genre. For example: Rappers = Talking about
women, money and wearing jewelry like chains and clothes like hats, including the
use of big houses.
https://youtu.be/pVd3--VlHNU - French Montana - Pop That.
He also says that Sound and Vision shows a transparent relationship between lyrics
and visuals. – Eg Pop That.
He states that the video directly represents the lyrics of the song and an example of
this would also be Pop That by French Montana or Bake Sale by Wiz Khalifa -
Illustrativehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTAZlHGOVo8
Amplification – He also states that videos can also manipulate the audience through
repitition of key meanings.
Disjuncture – This means the songs meaning is ignored.
Notions of Looking- we are ‘watching’ the performer and gaining pleasure from it.
Typically features windows and mirrors etc.
Star Image- promotion of the star through the video using frequent close ups and
things representing themselves.
Intertextuality- reference to other media texts (such as other songs, films etc.). Allows
the audience to quickly decode the meaning.

2. Simon Firth
• Simon Firth stated that “music videos may be
characterised by three broad typologies:
performance, narrative and conceptual” (1988)
https://youtu.be/SR6iYWJxHqs - Example

3. Performance
• Performance videos, the most common type (Firth 1988)
feature the star or group singing in concert to wildly
enthusiastic fans. The aim of this is show a sense of the in-
concert experience.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmXLzY8kbYA

4. Performance
• Performance videos that display the star or group in the
studio remind the viewer that the soundtrack and album are
still important.
• “Performance oriented visuals cue viewers that, indeed, the
recording of the music is the most significant element” (Gow,
1992)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGPeNN9S0Fg

5. Narrative
• A video may tell any kind of story in linear, cause-effect
sequencing. Love stories are the most common narrative mode
in music video and normally follow the pattern of boy meets
girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Action in the story is
dominated by males who do things and females who passively
react or wait for something to happen (Schwichtenberg, 1992).
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M97vR2V4vTs

6. Conceptual
• Conceptual videos rely on poetic form, primarily metaphor (Frith,
1988). The conceptual video can be metaphysical poetry articulated
through visual and verbal elements.
• “These videos make significant use of the visual element, presenting to
the eye as well as the ear, and in doing so, conveying truths
inexpressible discursively” (Lorch 1988).
• “Conceptual videos do not tell a story in linear fashion, but rather
create a mood, a feeling to be evoked in the experience of viewing”
(Frith 1988)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuZE_IRwLNI
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O1_3zBUKM8