Music Video Conventions List

Music Video Conventions


1) Artists will usually appear in the video
Sam Smith 'Lay Me Down'
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'

2) The song will be the soundtrack to the video
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'

3) Artists usually lip sync to lyrics
Sam Smith 'Lay Me Down'
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
 Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
 Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'

4) Artists will perform throughout the video
Sam Smith 'Lay Me Down'
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
 Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
 Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
 Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'

5) Video will have 3 or more locations
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
 Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'

6) costumes will match locations and change throughout
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
 Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'


7) There will usually be sections of the video that are filmed in a studio
Sam Smith 'Lay Me Down'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
 Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'

8) Video will contain a narrative
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'
 Sam Smith 'Lay Me Down'

9) Video will contain a range of camera movements to create a dynamic look
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'

10) Close ups for lip sync, mid/long shots for performances and extremes close up for cutaways.
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman' 

11) Video may often use high angles to create a vulnerable or sexy look or low angles to create a dominant or powerful look
Sam Smith 'Lay Me Down'
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'

12) There will be a wide range of different shots types/angles in each location to allow dynamic and non repetitive editing
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'

13) The editing will cut to the beat and will be montage editing 
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'

14) Quite often slow motion is used
Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'

15) Video based around a concept rather than a story
Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'

16) Eye contact from the artist
 Jennifer Hudson 'Spotlight'
 Rhianna ft Neyo 'Hate That I Love You'
 Chris Brown ft Keri Hilson 'Superhuman'
 Sam Smith 'Money On My Mind'

music conventions with 2 examples each

There are 5 main conventions when it comes to music videos. Shot types, costume, setting, movement/gestures and the pace of the video.

To add effect to the meaning of the video there are many different shot types: close-up mid-shots, long-shots and many more. An example of where you can see a change in shot types clearly is in the 'same girl' it goes from an extreme-close-up to a mid-shot.

In the music video 'superhuman' you see the same.

Another convention is costume, costumes have a big effect on music videos as it sets the tone and give the audience more of an understanding of what the song and video is about. In the music video 'Spotlight' you see that the singer Jennifer Hudsonis in a nightclub and she is wearing a party/smartish outfit to show that it looks like she is out to have a good time.

in the music video 'Rather be' the women is in casual clothing to show that she if just an ordinary girl just doing day to day tasks.

 Setting is very important in a music video as it sets the tone of the video in 'Rather Be' its set in a town which just shows she is an ordinary girl doing ordinary day to day tasks.

In the music video 'Same Girl' the setting of them being in their own houses on the phone to each other makes it seem like its just a normal conversation between friends about a girl this i effective as it enables the reader to make up a story of what has happened in their heads.


 movements and gestures are effective in music videos as it shows the passion and meaning of the song. in 'SueprHuman' by Chris Brown he is singing about a girl and how much she means to him he brings his fists towards his heart showing people that she means a lot to him.

In the music video 'Spotlight' Jennifer Hudson taps her chest as a gesture to show that hse is a strong independent woman. and the way she pushes the man away from her shows that she doesn't need him in her life.


The pace of the video is crucial as it has to match the pace of the song. If you have a really slow meaningful song with a very up beat and fast vedeo it will look odd.
in the music video 'Money On My Mind' there is a section where the music and video slow down at the same pace and time which makes the audience attracted towards it.


although the tune in 'Superhuman' is quite up beat the singing is quite low key this goes with the pace of the video is slow paced this is effective as it shows the audience how deep the meaning of the song is