Theories on Music Video Forms and Conventions

Simon Frith

• Frith’s theory is based on the idea that music videos come in three different types:– Performance (where the artist or band is

singing/dancing/playing an instrument)– Narrative (where a story is being told, perhaps by actors

rather than the artists themselves and there is often no lip synchronisation)

– Conceptual (where a story is told in a more poetic and metaphorical form, with the intention of evoking different emotions and interpretations)

Relevance to our videoOur video both develops and challenges this theory. Our video is predominantly performance, which is one of the categories within Frith’s theory.

E.g. below is an image of D4MES dancing/lip-syncing to the chorus

However, our video also has aspects of narrative is so it is not just one of the three types according to his theory but two – a mixture.E.g. to the right is an image of myself and my actor acting

Carol Vernallis

Vernallis’ theory is based around four key concepts, two of which are very relevant to our video:• Narrative• Editing• Camera movement and angles• Diegesis

Narrative

There are two parts to her narrative theory:• Vernallis claims that the music video is a

response to the narrative. In other words, what the viewer is seeing reflects the lyrics

• Alternatively, the narrative may be incomplete, resulting in a disjointed video. In this case another aspect of the video, such as the music (as oppose to the lyrics) may drive the video forward.

Relevance to our videoOur video develops Vernallis’ narrative theory. Some of the scenes in our video were a direct response to the lyrics and so the visuals reflect the lyrics. E.g. For Angel’s verse, her background is black with red and green lasers, giving the effect of bright stars within a magical galaxy. This is a direct link to the lyrics in her verse: “I see the stars, the sun and the moon when I'm with you”

Editing

There are also two parts to her editing theory:• Vernallis claims that a music video may well

break the conventions of continuity editing; this is conventional

• A music video may also make the editing conspicuous, as oppose to concealed which would be the case with continuity editing

Relevance to our video • Our video develops Vernallis’ editing theory. We have used

discontinuous editing which can be seen by the various jump cuts and changes in pace.

• More importantly, the editing itself plays a key role in the look of our video. We wanted to use cool effects to achieve a flickery/jumpy effect, in order to match the sound of the music video and make it visually exciting.

E.g. Below is an interesting effect we used in Angel’s verse: