1. Thought Beats – visualising the sound in your head.

The music video represents the style, identity, brand of the artist through their
uniquely recognisable voice and character. The artist is established as a story
teller that expresses their story within song through the vocals of the song.
Taylor Swift – Blank Space

2. Narrative and Performance

The artist is involved with performing/actin a role as the main character or

singer in the music video. This allows the song to be more realistic and creates a
special connection between the audiences that makes the video more relatable,
helping the audience better understand the story. Furthermore, creating a more
authentic feel throughout the video as the artist acts as both performer and
narrator.
The performance aspect of the music video makes it possible for the video to be
viewed repeatable, solidifying the message of advertising the artist’s album and
music.
Khalid – Location

3. Star Image

The development of the artist as a star/brand over the time across their career.
Music videos are typically used to promote an artist as the artist is the star of
the video, having most of the screen time being the centre of attention. This is
emphasised through the proliferation of close-ups of the artist, drawing attention
to them which is used to promote them.
Katy Perry – California Girls

4. Relation of Visuals to Song

The lyrics play a pivotal role in the structure of music videos as it allows the
artist and director to create a video that can be easily interpreted by audiences
so that audiences can follow it.
Disjuncture – The meaning of the song is completely ignored. The images of
the video don’t relate to the lyrics.
Childish Gambino – 3005

Amplify – The meaning of the story is exaggerated through visuals which are
repeated. The meanings and effect are manipulated and constantly shown
through the video and drummed into the audience’s vision.
Baha Men – Who Let the Dogs Out

Illustrate – The meaning of the song is made clear through the video. This is
the most common use in music videos. There are a set of images to illustrate the
meaning of the lyrics and genre.
Lil Dicky – Lemme Freak
 5. Technical Codes

This refers to the elements added in post-production – cinematography, mise-

en-scene, sound effects and overall editing such as transitions and special
effects.
Atmosphere, tone and mood can be reflected through the use of colour,
speed/tempo of editing and variety of transitions. Lighting and colour set the
mood and emphasise significant parts of a song to create a dramatic effect and
thrill the audience.
The beats of a song create effective cuts that go well with rhythm of the song to
make the music video look more entertaining, especially the cuts (editing) as it
goes with beat and rhythm.
Iconography can also be presented to audience through the four main technical
codes: cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound and editing. All of these
iconographic elements contribute to the genre conventions of music videos also.

6. Reference to the Notion of Looking

Direct/indirect address – Looking at audience and sing to them (direct)

Feeling of distance and voyeurism (indirect)
Props such as mirrors are used to represent the notion of looking. Shots of the
artist reflected in mirror, use of television or other sources.
Voyeurism is often used in order to help sell the artists music, often through
sex appeal – idea of looking at something in order to gain sexual pleasure.
Kanye West – Gold Digger

7. Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics

Genre characteristics the audience are able to identify making them conventional
and expected from music videos from that genre.
Micro-elements play a pivotal role in establishing genre to audiences.
Hip-Hop – scantily clad women. Close-ups, Quick cuts, bling, money, fast

8. Intertextual References

Where a relation between texts are built through a particular medium. The text
tends to reference something from pop culture i.e. film, TV, music videos, real
events, current affairs.
This helps audiences interpret the meaning of the text.
Producers use intertextuality the audience may be familiar with to generate both
potentially nostalgic associations and new meaning.
Pays homage to another text.
Two types:
Parody – Imitates the style of artist work for comedic effect.
Weird Al - White & Nerdy (Parody of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire feat.
Krayzie Bone)
Pastiche – Imitates the style of artist work to pay tribute.
Michael Jackson – Thriller (pays tribute to horror films)