CONVENTIONS OF FORM

By Mollie Allison

NARRATIVE

Conventions of a narrative performance involve a structural plot of we follow the characters through their experiences. For example in the music video Not the only one – by Sam Smith, the music video follows the story of an unstable relationship built upon lies. Usually the music video involves a performance from the artist to feature in the music video. However in some music videos, the artist can appear as the main character of the music video, for example in Give your heart a break, Demi Lovato plays the female lead.

PERFORMANCE

Music videos that have a performance element. This can be usually identified through the use of lip syncing or the artist performing the song. Most boy bands include them performing in there music video as it is conventional and is what you would expect to see in a music video. For example Only love can hurt like this by Paloma Faith, she sings the song throughout the music video with a few narrative shots. Also in the music video Summer by Calvin Harris

ABSTRACT

Abstract music videos often have little link to the songs lyrics. Usually it involves a creative element and is often seen as being original and obscure. For example Chandelier by Sia, has no narrative or performance element but simply involves a girl dancing to the song. The music video is seen as abstract because the dancing is unnatural and not often seen in most videos as well as the costume and setting of the music video being out of the norm. Also another example would be Lotus Flower by Radiohead because it follows the same style as the Sia music video but is a different style of dancing. The music video consists of the dancer standing in the middle of the frame dancing, strangely to the song.

CONVENTIONS OF GENRE

CONVENTIONS OF POP

Pop genre can be defined as what is current in the charts at that specific time. However they are patterns that can be seen throughout the years of pop music being developed. Pop music is mainly popular with the youth category. With most pop music videos there is some visual reference to the lyrics in the video, without this link people wouldn’t associate the music video with the song and it wouldn’t be considered popular music. For example the music video ‘This is how we do’ by Katy Perry, She acts out the lyrics of the song throughout which is done affectively because you can associate the action with what's going on in the music video. The characters in the music video are often young to attract the target audience of young people, as they can relate to what's going on in the music video. Make up is often used in pop music videos to make the artist original and unique in the music video to express there style of music.