Conventions of form

Music videos always feature three forms of narrative; performance, narrative and abstract. Typically the main features are performance and narrative as they are the most popular. This can be reinforced via my audience research as performance received the most votes, followed by narrative and then abstract in last place. The pie chart demonstrates this.


Within the performance you would typically expect close up shots of instruments to foreground the nature of the performance and the importance of that instrument at that particular shot. If the performance features a band you would expect an extreme long shot or a long shot to show the whole band performing. Kids in Glass Houses' video for "Peace" (2013) shows these points clearly.

Music videos with a narrative are made up with a combination of story and plot to show what happens within the diegesis. Some follow a linear chronology for example The Maine's video for "These Four Words"; the video combines the performance with the narrative but still follows the linear chronology.

An example of a music video that doesn't follow a linear chronology is The Maine's videos for "Love & Drugs"; The video starts at the end and then tells the story of the narrative.

Abstract music videos are rarely found anymore but are not unheard of. Abstract music videos do not necessarily tell a story but can still convey the tone of the song. An example of abstract music videos is Radiohead's video for "Street Spirit".

A common trend in music videos now is to just have a performance or even a live performance; this is becoming increasingly popular especially with bands who want a lower budget music video. An example would be The 1975's video for the EP version of their song "Sex". When they released that EP they did not have the budget they had now so they just filmed themselves performing the song. When their debut album came out, they had a bigger budget so they filmed a brand new video which included a narrative.

In terms of editing; cuts are conventionally in time with the beat. This is to keep the flow of the song and to make it look professional and authentic. Which can be seen within videos that are montages of live shows and backstage. An example is Pierce The Veil's video for "Hell Above" which shows footage of their Collide with the Sky Tour in 2012.