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'