This document outlines the key elements of a lesson on music promotion and music videos. The lesson will have students analyze the conventions and techniques used in music videos, create a pitch for a music video based on song lyrics and genre, and reflect on what they learned about genre conventions by comparing their idea to an existing Johnny Cash video. Students will then blog about their music video pitch and the task.

1. Music Promotion
Lesson 4

2. To start…
• We are going to watch a music video. What
are the key elements that music videos use to
communicate meaning, attract an audience
and promote their star?
• Does this differ from genre to genre?

3. How do music videos
communicate meaning?

4. In this lesson we will…
• Analyse the generic conventions and technical
features of music videos.
• Create a pitch for a music video based on
lyrics and generic conventions.

5. Task 1:
• Using the lyrics in front of you, come up with a 60 second
pitch of what you would do if you were making a music
video for this song. Each group will be allocated a different
genre.
• You must consider:
– Genre
– Relation to lyrics
– Target audience
– Cinematography
– Setting
– Mise-en-scene
– Editing
– Performance
– Narrative.

6. Life’s a pitch…
• So let’s get practising.

7. Homework - Get blogging!
• Upload your video to your blog with an
explanation of the task and what it has taught
you about generic conventions. Also add the
actual video by Johnny Cash to show how your
idea is different.
• (If you don’t have your video do the post and I
will help you upload the video in our next
lesson).