The document discusses conventions in music videos and how to challenge them. It describes developing the narrative of a music video to be less obvious and including bolder colors in the album design. It also challenges conventions by featuring a female artist who defies beauty standards and does not sexualize herself. The narrative does not specify the gender of the artist's love interest, allowing for open interpretation.

2. USE

3. OVERLAYING TEXT:
• This is placed at the
beginning of a music video –
a typical convention seen
with many popular music
videos.
• This code mimics the titles
of a film (as seen with the
image of the opening credits
of ”Skyfall”) and lets the
viewer know that the video is
a film-like visual
experience.
Music Video

4. Music Video
VARIATION OF SHOTS
• This is a commonly used
convention for music
videos.
• Close-ups reveal the
actor’s emotions and are
used during the
performance shots to
show the artist lip-syncing.
• Establishing shots are
present in every music
video – they set the tone
for the rest of the video
and audiences can decide
if they want to watch the
rest of the video/if it is of a
genre they like.

5. Music Video
MISE-EN-SCENE AND PROPS:
• The mise-en-scene and props
used should reflect the genre of the
artist’s music and intended artistic
style or aesthetic.
• I included a variety of props that
conform to acoustic indie
expectations, including a guitar,
books and balloons.
• Moreover, as mentioned in my
location research, the location of a
beach has acoustic indie
connotations.

6. Digipak FRONT COVER:
• The main image depicts the artist and the
design is kept relatively simple/plain.
• Popular albums often show the artist on the
front cover of the album as it is a part of
their branding. For instance, Taylor Swift is
present on the cover of all of her albums as
it is her that sells the albums.
• Many people will buy the album without
listening to the singles or teasers because
they are fans of the artist as opposed to the
music. By adopting this convention, I am
insinuating that my artist is quite well-
known.
• Moreover, my artist’s image is quite unique
in comparison to most female solo artists.
Therefore, by featuring her on the cover,
the album can be easily recognised by my
target audience.

7. Digipak
BACK COVER:
• The layout of the tracklist is in a standard
format of a list. Moreover, one of the “tracks”
on the list features another artist (Shawn
Mendes – another acoustic pop artist) which
is a heavily used convention.
• Institutional (i.e. copyright) information is
also included at the bottom of the back cover
which is typical when the artist is signed to a
large corporation.
• The main convention which has been
adopted for my product is the
correspondence of the back cover’s house
style with the front cover. Most albums’ front
and back covers will have the same style in
terms of the colour scheme and the fonts
(or, in some cases, the image from the front
cover may bleed across to the back).

8. Digipak
INSIDE COVERS:
• Once again, the inside
covers maintain the same
house style and colour
scheme as the rest of the
album.
• The grid for the inside left
cover all use the same
filter from the photo
editing app “Prisma” which
further reinforces this
house style.

9. Magazine Advert
LAYOUT:
• The conventional layout of a
magazine advert for an
album is that the title and
artist’s name is easily
noticeable and usually in a
central position, whereas
smaller texts are in less
obvious places.
• If there is an image with the
artist’s face on the advert
then the text will border it,
which is what I have done
with my advert.

10. Magazine Advert
BRANDING
• The design for the magazine
advert and the album front
cover are very similar, with the
same fonts, image and colour
scheme being used.
• This establishes a sense of
brand identity amongst the
ancillary products.

11. DEVELOP

12. Music Video
NARRATIVE:
• A way in which I developed this
aspect of a music video was that the
narrative of the video was not
immediately apparent.
• Oftentimes, the storyline or plot for a
music video is obvious within the first
few seconds and is explicitly denoted
from the shots, locations and
acting.
• However, I developed this convention
as I wanted to appeal to ”explorer”
and “reformer” audiences, who
typically value difference and
independent judgement.
• By having the meaning of my music
video hidden between the lines, my
product would appeal to this target
audience more.
Ed Sheeran’s “The A Team” – narrative is
clear within the first 20 seconds of the
video.
Sydney Stone’s “Offbeat” - narrative is less
obvious.

13. Digipak
COLOUR SCHEME:
• Acoustic indie albums usually have a
neutral colour palette in order to convey a
“natural” design which complements the
tone of the album as well as the music
video.
• I decided to develop this characteristic by
including more daring and striking colours,
such as red and orange. The neutral tones
are still present in the main images (i.e. light
baby pink and the beige) but the addition of
bolder tones strays from the conventional
acoustic indie album.
• This, once again, is due to the fact that my
target audience value individualism.
Moreover, 16 to 24 year olds are more
likely to choose an album with more
prominent colours.
Novo Amor – Faux Gold
Sydney Stone – The Art in my
Heart

14. Magazine Advert
REVIEW:
• Most adverts for an album will include a positive
review in order to entice the audience to
purchase it. For print adverts, the reviews are
often from print music magazines, such as Q or
NME.
• A development I made from this was to still
include a positive review, but not from a print
magazine.
• Instead, I research digital music websites and I
discovered “Pitchfork” – an American online
music magazine. Living in the digital age means
print magazines are becoming increasingly
redundant. Therefore, to have my product appeal
to a young demographic means it was necessary
for me to include platforms that my audience
would actually use.
• Moreover, Pitchfork have branded themselves as
“The Most Trusted Voice in Music.” Thus, the
company has relevancy as well as credibility,
making them the perfect source for the review.
Noah and the Whale advert
Mumford & Sons advert
Sydney Stone advert

15. CHALLENGE

16. Music Video
TALENT:
• The actors for music videos typically fit with society’s
unrealistic standards of beauty. The main portrayal of
females in music videos is that they are tall, slim, with
long hair and as sexual objects for men.
• Feminist theorist Laura Mulvey argues that female
representation in the media is merely a means by which
the “Male Gaze” can be satisfied. Women are often
depicted as ‘The Love Interest’ or a role which is
subordinate to a male counterpart.
• I challenged this stereotypical representation by
featuring an actor that opposed the mainstream
expectation of how a woman “should” look.
• For instance, my artist was female but she had short
hair which, arguably, presents her to be more of a
“tomboy”. The notion that women should have long hair
(and men should have short hair) is one that the media
has enforced upon us and it is up to the media to
challenge these ideas.
• Furthermore, my artist is approachable – she is not
overwhelmingly glamorous nor does she present herself
as untouchable. Her humble appearance means her
audience can relate to her and feel that she is “one of
them”. Here, Richard Dyer’s Star Theory can be
applied as he says that celebrities should be both
The female lead in Justin Bieber’s “What Do You Mean” is
predominantly shown in her underwear or revealing clothing,
whereas Bieber is only shirtless for a short amount of time and
mostly clothed.
Whereas Sydney Stone is
fully clothed and does not
sexualize herself in any
way throughout the video.

17. Music Video
NARRATIVE:
• The way my narrative is presented is only a development from a conventional music video.
However, the actual narrative of the video itself aims to challenge usual storylines.
• The main premise of the song is that the artist is happily in love and she is so joyful she wants to
dance.
• Something I noticed was that the lyrics do not explicitly mention the gender of whom she is
singing to. Therefore I felt it unnecessary to include a love interest for the artist. Instead, the
narrative of my video is that the artist is being reminded of her significant other in the simple
details of her life, such as reading a book.
• By excluding a love interest in the music video, the audience are able to imagine the person to
whom this song is addressed however they would like. Although it is a subtle connotation, it may
perhaps resonate with people of the LBGTQ+ community.
• This differs from other music videos as they usually include a love interest and the audience are
left to passively consume the product. My product allows its audience to interpret the story with
their own ideas.