Key Music Video Conventions

There are many different traditional conventions for a music video. The obvious examples of this are;

• lip syncing
• editing to the beat
• artist/band in the video
• mini narrative

The example below is a very generic music video, as its mainly lip syncing, looking into the camera, with both artists singing (one of them playing an instrument)

Different types of music have slightly different key conventions, for example girl groups/artists tend to have a specific dance routine and stick to that throughout the video, also they tend to wear bikinis just to have an excuse to show off their bodies. Such as the example below...



Another genre that has more specific conventions is RnB/Hip Hop, this is because they tend to have lots of dancing girls, expensive cars, flash jewellery and sitting around a pool. An example of this would be David Guetta ft Akon - Sexy Chick





However some artists choose to ignore all of the typical conventions, this is normally typical of Indie bands and dance acts. The example below by Aphex Twin doesn't use any of the normal conventions and is designed to shock and surpirse the viewer.