Conventions of a pop music video.

1. Conventions of a Pop Video.
Sarah Byard.

2. Videos referenced:
• Waterfalls – Stooshe.
• Troublemaker – Olly Murs.
• Heart Skips A Beat – Olly Murs.
• Please Don’t Let Me Go – Olly Murs.
• Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5.
• What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction.
• Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen
• We Are Young – FUN.
• Wings – Little Mix.

3. Link between lyrics and visuals.

4. ‘I got them moves like Jagger’. ‘Don’t go chasing waterfalls’.
‘The way that you flip your hair
There is usually some link between
gets me overwhelmed’.
lyrics and visuals. If it did not, then
the video would be pretty irrelevant
and people wouldn’t care about it.
It also helps people remember the
lyrics, as they can see it. That
makes the person remember the
song and, possibly, want to buy it.

5. Link between music and visuals.

6. Rapid cuts in Moves Like Jagger In Troublemaker, these three clips
used to intersperse images of are edited to slide in to shot in
Adam Levine and other images. It time with the music. This makes it
is edited in time to the beat. This more aesthetically pleasing.
suits the theme of the song, as it is Editing clips to the beat is often
about a person with a dominant used to make a video more
personality. Having him as the aesthetically pleasing.
dominant in the video reflects this.

7. Fits characteristics of genre.

8. There’s usually bright lighting
and some form of bright
object/costume in pop videos.
This makes the video stand out
more and also appeals to youth
(the target audience), as it
appears vibrant and
lively, something young people
are attracted to. It also makes it
more upbeat, so it fits the beat
and general message of the
songs.

9. I like to think One Direction will be like I love her cardigan, how
fashion: a fad that will go away. pretty.
Olly Murs is fashionable. Suits are cool. The costume for actors in
He wears nice clothes. FUN are cool. pop videos is generally
whatever is fashionable at
the time. This makes them
relatable and liked by their
youthful target audience, as
fashion is important to
them.

10. Carly Rae Jepsen Olly Murs. I like to screencap mugshots.
The actors in pop music
One Direction.
videos are generally young.
This is because the artists
are mainly young, but it also
appeals to the target
audience: the youth of the
day.

11. Troublemaker features Olly Murs following a Call Me Maybe features CRJ
woman that he likes the look of. stalking her gay neighbour.
Most pop videos feature some
element of love in their narratives.
This is because most of the lyrics
are about love. It also appeals to
the target audience, as young
teenagers are often obsessed with
WMYB features the most awkward the concept.
‘romantic’ scene ever.

12. There are often references to the artist’s
name or the song title in the music videos.
This establishes straight away who the
song is by probably because it’s hard to tell
without because they all sound exactly the
same and what it’s called, so it embeds in
the brain of the audience more

13. Fun performing in slow motion Stooshe performing whilst a load
whilst a bunch of people fight. of people dance.
Maroon 5 performing with Christina There’s usually a lot of
Aguileria and a bunch of Jagger performance in pop music
lookalikes. videos. This is because a video
can’t be full of
narrative, otherwise they would
be boring. They also want to be
taken seriously as artists, so
they show themselves
performing.

14. There is generally
synchronised dancing in
pop music videos. This is
usually done by female
pop groups, and shows
them to be all-round
performers, not just
singers. It’s also the norm
today for girl groups to be
pretty dancers who can’t
actually sing.

15. Close ups and motifs.

16. I’m baffled as to how this man
looks 10 yet 40 at the same time. Congrats on the face.
Adam Levine looking fine as always.
There are often close ups of the
artist or the band in the music
video. This is because they
want to keep their faces
relevant, as the world of pop
music is ever-changing.

17. Olly Murs wears a certain type of hat (my
stepdad called it a pork pie hat but I doubt
that’s the real phrase for it) which has
become his motif. This makes him
recognisable.
Artists might choose an item of outfit or
a recurring symbol. This makes them
recognisable, and therefore, popular.

18. References to looking and/or
voyeurism.

19. There is some voyeruism in pop
videos; however, it is not
actually voyeurism of the
female form. In these
videos, there is voyeurism of
the male form. This highlights
some hypocrisy in the music
industry; it’s okay for men to be
looked at, but when it’s women
there’s fuss about it.
This appeals to the (largely
female) target audience, as they
want to look at pretty men, thus
the popularity of things such as
the Twilight films.

20. Intertextuality.

21. This man is dressed like this man.
Intertextuality is often
used by artists to give
a nod to either their
subject matter or the
original artist of the
song. Adorno would
TLC in the original TLC in Stooshe’s call it pseudo-
‘Waterfalls’. ‘Waterfalls’. individualism and
there being no
originality in the
world; I call it
laziness.