These music videos clearly portray the genre of music "Drill" through the outfit and the titles.
They have to sell and most importantly sell to the right audience. Convections, like traditions, make it easy for an audience to relate or understand the type of media which they are consuming and allows them to situate a song and artist within a music genre.
The purpose of the music video is to help sell the album, single, concert tickets and merchandise. It also helps to relate to other similar artist which can appeal to similar fans.
Technical and Symbolic Convections
Technical relate to the styles of camera, editing and sounds, these can be diegetic or non diegetic, part of performance obviously but also part of narrative in some cases too.
Close ups help to add recognition of the artist or the band, this builds star image and also emphasises the link with music and lyrics- the singers face, the drummers hands.
Mid shots show the body language and costume of artists, this can demonstrate emotions and can connote values and attitudes.
Tilts, pans and tracking shots allow the artist to move around, moving from one band member to another which shows their relationship as a band.
Long shots and wide shots show the set of the video and the particular location.
Crane shots are used to emphasise scale of live audience any concert and add to movement and pace.
Artificial lighting is very often used to give the artist a glow or make them seem perfect. It can also be used to add a sense of danger using dark lighting or bright light to give a sense of safety.
The editing must match the pace and rhythm of the music, the artist has to mimic the lyrics perfectly and edited perfectly to make the video seem like a live performance.
Discontinuity editing, jump cuts to create a high energy and sense of frantic movement.
Symbolic convections relate to mise-en-scene; costume, props, location, setting, colours, lighting, make up, arrangement of band members and performance.
The instruments themselves fit a certain category and can help distinctfy the certain band.
Colour is another symbolic convention.
The performance is so important in a music video as the singer is singing to you, it gives a sense of intimacy with the band or singer.
Types of Music Video
Performance- this is similar to a live performance, the footage shows the band or singer miming the words.
Concept- these are based around one particular idea and often will seem very unrealistic to the audience.
Narrative- this is almost a small story as a music video, this will often follow the singer miming part of the song.
Mixture- This is a video which combines all of the types listed above.
