Generic Conventions of Pop Music Videos

Characters

In most pop music videos, the main artist is typically a female, with some exceptions of a few male artists / boy bands (6/10 are females and 4/10 are males). If the artist is male, then the performers will typically all be female. On the contrary, if the artist is female, then the performers will typically be a mix of male or female. Another factor that will affect who the performers are is the type of music video - for example, if it is performance based, a narrative or a concept video.

In Katy Perry's 'Dark Horse' music video, the video consists of performance as Katy Perry is singing throughout the video, with a narrative integrated of a story she is trying to tell. It has a mix of both males and females performing.

Mise en scene

The costume typically depends on the artist's choices. However, if there were to be a common trend, the clothes would have vibrant colours, with something that wouldn't normally be worn by other people e.g. clothes worn by Lady Gaga.

The lighting within most pop performances are near enough the same - it has high key natural and un-natural lighting. The reason for this is to present a positive vibe and feel about an artist, which therefore encourages audiences to buy the music. The high key lighting is always balanced out with a small amount of low key lighting, such as the video for 'Burn' by Ellie Goulding.

The props all depend on the lyrics and the artist, for example many of Rihanna's songs tend to have drugs and alcohol as part of her props, as it symbolises her problems and links to her lyrics. Other props consist of the instruments of the artist / band, something which artist Taylor Swift does often. The props of any music video can never be defined as a specific type.

The setting of a music video, especially in pop, will be somewhere famous with possibly a party ambiance location, such as Las Vegas, New York and California, or just popular locations such as London. In the video, 'Slow Down' by Selena Gomez, it is filmed in Paris at night. On the other hand, some music videos are filmed in rugged and dodgy areas, such as 'Feel the Love' by Rudimental.

Narrative

Pop music videos contain both linear and non-linear narratives, although it all depends on the artist. For example, Taylor Swift's 'Red' doesn't follow a linear narrative at all, whereas Adele's 'Rolling in the Deep' strictly follows a linear narrative. Most music videos follow Todorov's theory of narrative, which says that music videos follow an equilibrium, a disruption to that equilibrium, which then leads to a new equilibrium.

Editing

The editing of a music video can vary from video to video, especially with a genre as vast as pop. The pace of a music video can heavily influence the editing, such as 'Jar of Hearts' by Christina Perri being relatively slow paced for the majority of the video, whereas 'Problem' by Ariana Grande is quite face paced.

Camera

The most common camera shot in pop music videos is a close up of the main artist, with frequent long shots showing the full performance such as the choreography or the performance. POV shots are also very common, as shown in Dukedumont's 'I Got You'. This is because it is a very effective camera shot that puts the audience into the artists shoes.