The document discusses conventions in the electronic music genre for music videos. It defines conventions as features that communicate genres to audiences and shape their expectations. It then examines various symbolic and technical conventions for elements like setting, costumes, props, camerawork, lighting, and editing. Examples are provided of how the described conventions were both adhered to and sometimes subverted in a music video campaign to engage audiences.

1. Conventions
Definition - features of a genre through which texts are communicated to audiences.
Symbolic Technica
lConstruction of the text:
- Camerawork: exposure, lens,
framing, movement
- Editing: graphic / rhythmic /
spacial / temporal edits
- Lighting: source, direction,
colour
Visuals that create the
audience’s expectations of a
particular genre. All the
elements of mies-en-scene
except for lighting:
- Location / Set Design
- Costume and Make Up
- Props
- Positioning
- Facial Expression
Conventions are used, developed or challenged through adherence or subversion to raise the
audience’s demand for texts by providing the information on the texts’ content and fulfilling
the expectations from the genre.
Production of our music campaign required research on real media texts of electronic genre
and subsequent creative decision making about implementation of the established codes.
All the examples that I will use in this presentation are products of the electronic genre.

2. Symbolic Conventions
Music Video
: Location and Set Design
Our set design:
By choosing a jazz club as the setting we used the
convention of a festive atmosphere frequently employed in
the real products of the electronic genre. Because the
genre is most commonly consumed in relation to partying
and nightlife it is common for the action of the music
videos to be located at bars, nightclubs and other sites
associated with partying. These are examples of the same
gene texts that employ this feature:
The bracelet and the number of people
dancing connote that it is a nightclub
Steve Aoki, Just Hold On
Mike Posner, I took a Pill in Ibiza
ZHU, Faded

3. However, by replacing the nightclub with a jazz club without a
dance floor but strictly organised tables, we developed the
convention by adhering the association with festivity and nightlife
while subverting the representation of leisure. We thus
challenged the audience’s expectation by substituting the
dancing crowd identifiable with contemporary festivities, aiming
to raise interest by providing an original visualisation and
subsequently raise demand for the star and his merchandise.Calvin Harris, How Deep is Your Love
The set design was dominated by a dark tone of red. This colour is often employed in media to connote passion and
other strong emotions, so a duller version of it sustained the connotation of the artist’s liveliness while creating a more
mysterious, surreal setting common in the genre as electronic texts use abstract imagery as an alternative to engage the
audience due to less action in the performance element than in genres of instrumental composition:
In Daft Punk’s Instant Crush the same tone of red is used in
set design to create surrealistic domain in the diegesis
The table cloth, the curtain and the
stage are of the same colour.

4. Fashionable outfit is an electronic convention which is closely linked to the convention of festivity. Because the
artists of the genre are often depicted in surroundings which require unordinary dress code, such as
nightclubs, the employed costumes are often elegant or glamorous.
Costumes and Make Up
By dressing up our star in a suit and the other performers in smart outfits we adhered the convention of
the performers’ exciting social life. Elegant clothes also raise the audience’s interest and their demand
for consumption of the star as a commodity.
The choice of costume and make up is more
important for female than male performers.
The contemporary society regards women as
of physical beauty than men. By providing
aesthetic outfit for the back vocalist we acted
according to Laura Mulvey’s “Male Gaze
Theory” which indicates that audiences view
characters from the perspective of a
heterosexual male. The theory can be applied
to multiple texts of the electronic genre:

5. David Guetta, Bang My Head Avicii, Addicted To You
These are examples of creating interest for the male artists through the use of costumes:
Martin Garrix, In The Name Of Love Big Sean in Calvin Harris’s Feels

6. The costumes for the boxer and the ballerina were chose to demonstrate the physical fitness of the characters:
Visuals of strength and flexibility are engaging for the audience as they provide novel action which contrasts with
the performance element. The costumes of ballet and dancing are also very different in their strictness in
comparison to flamboyant outfits of the performance. Raising the audience’s interest through the use of contrasts
is a common method. Hall of Fame by also employed boxing and ballet to achieve this effect:

7. Props
Electronic genre rarely employs the performance element because the songs often do not include live instruments,
which are more engaging to watch on a video. Props usually consists of objects related to the narrative or
engaging contemporary objects:
Spray paint in Avicii’s The Nights Time machine in Steve Aoki’s Just Hold On
Our video subverted this convention by introducing live instruments, although the actual soundtrack was electronic.
The unordinary approach aimed at raising the interest of the target audience who would have consumed electronic
genre merchandise before and thus would be surprised by it.
However, the subversion was employed by some other texts of the genre, aiming to achieve the same effect on
the viewer, for example in AronChupa’s Albatraoz:
Piano
DJ

8. Performance
We adhered the electronic convention of centring the video on the artist’s singing and dancing, since the purpose
of a music campaign is to market the star. Artists appeal to the audience through energetic choreography and
happy facial expressions, unless the rhythm and tone of the music require a different attitude:
The following examples also employ choreography
and lip-sync as the focal point of the product:
Kiesza, Hideaway
Major Lazer, Lean On
LMFAO, Party Rock

9. Technical Conventions: Camerawork
Because of the quick rhythm of the music and excessive movement of the performers we included much camera
movement so that the action in the frame would correspond with the cinematography and subsequently create a
pleasant visual. We thus used the technical convention of the electronic genre.
Much of Chainsmokers’ Don’t Let Me Down is filmed on stabilisation with more dynamic than static shots
Multiple shots of our video were
filmed with a dolly or handheld to
maintain the high pace of action
introduced by the content of the
shots. A moving frame connotes the
energy of the performers.

10. Because the purpose of a music campaign is to promote the artist, we positioned our star in the centre. Other
elements serve a decorative purpose, so shots of the band, the boxer and the ballerina did not require them to be
positioned on the centre, but maintained other guidelines of framing such as the rule of thirds.
As you see the star is in the middle, while other objects are positioned at the intersections points.
Almost every music video of the genre employ this feature. It opens with close ups of the artist to create the
feeling of intimacy in the audience, and keeps him or her in the centre of the frame to ensure the audience’s
attention is on the star:
DJ Khaled ft Rihanna, Wild Thoughts Era Istrefi, Bon Bon

11. Lighting
Colourful lighting connotes the festive atmosphere as it replicates
the lights in a nightclub. Red and blue is a visually pleasing
combination of lighting that would raise the audience’s interest in
the video due to its appealing aesthetics. The combination is
employed in multiple real texts of the genre, probably due to its
frequent use in establishments such as bars and nightclubs:
Deadmau5, Let Go
ZHU, Exhale Stardust
David Guetta & Afrojack, Dirty Sexy Money

12. Editing
The aim of editing a music video is to make it as engaging for the audience. Therefore, the offline editing
consisted of arranging the performance element by placing transitions between the footage according to the
rhythm of the music to combine the audible and visual experiences of the audience, and then introducing the
other two elements in a sequence that would be most visually engaging for the audience. Multiple music videos
of the genre consist of three elements which alternate thus maintaining the audience’s attention on the product:
Mome’s Aloha consists of multiple elements that accumulate into an exciting sequence.
Online editing was colour grading, an important process in improving the artist’s appearance by adjusting the light and
achieving the most visually pleasing image. Presenting the artist as physically attractive as possible is a convention
employed by the majority of media texts, thus adapting colour grading was a convention that we used: