Codes and Conventions in Hip Hop Music Videos

The genre I have chosen to analyse is Hip Hop. I have selected two music videos to help me understand the codes and conventions within this genre.



In Hip Hop music videos the location is usually set in a party, or a club with the use of alcohol shown and no narrative. The artist is usually focused on and very involved in the video, showing off their expensive jewellery with attractive women around them and close up showing off their assets, establishing shots and long shots are also used to show the location and what is going on around them. Recognised brands and clothing are occassionally shown.

I chose to analyse Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music as this is a Hip Hop video that conforms to the codes and conventions. There is no storyline to this video as it  is in a club. There is no alcohol really shown in this video, but the audience would presume there is alcohol as people who go clubbing stereotypically binge drink and get very drunk.The limelight is only on Rihanna in this video, with a  few other dancers on the dance floor who are occasionally shown. The camera focuses on her shoulders up jewellery a lot, perhaps to show that she is well off.
There are lots close ups of rihanna's face to show she is attractive and that she is the main focus in this video. Examples of establishing shots are also used to show the location of the video and the different areas of it, such as the toilet, the dancefloor and the seating area. We can see that she is dressed to go out as swe see right away that he has heels on and a dress. The artificial lighting and darkness also tells us straight away she is  in a club.







The other Hip Hop video I chose to analyse was Beyonce - Party as this video also conforms to the codes and conventions of Hip Hop videos.

There is also no storyline in this video. Straight away we can see that Beyonce is getting ready to go out, as she is cooking, getting her hair done but also all her make up is done as it shows us in close ups. We can see there is a use of alcohol as she has a cup in her hand whilst dancing with her friends. The next scene, there is an establishing shot of everyone dancing telling us its at a party. We also see another establishing shot of beyonce in a swimming pool, with everyone around her drinking from red cups, which tell us its alcohol.

Casting for Characters

Ideas:

In Delilah's music video's she mainly uses a narrative based video type however it is repeated throughout her music videos that she is not involved in the narrative she is simply the artist singing the song. Yet, she emphasises sex appeal and fashionable clothing bringing a real connection with her target audience. We needed to take this into account when we decided who to cast for our music video because we wanted to illustrate the same kind of feel.

Delilah's tracks are all about 'romance' whether it be a good or bad relationship the concept of the song is about love one way or another. For instance, in her music video 'Breathe' a male and female character show a love and hate relationship telling a story this is what we wanted to emphasise in our music video. The male character in Delilah's music video 'Breathe' was very masculine and dominant and the female character illustrated vulnerability and shyness. So, it was clear that we had a few ideas on how we wanted our characters to look in our music video. 

Casting:

For the artist we chose Mimi because she is a very fashionable and a very pretty girl. We wanted someone who would stand out and really catch the audiences eye like the artist Delilah and the target audience watching would aspire to be her. We felt that Mimi would be perfect for the music video. 

For the male and female character we wanted to find good actors/actresses because we wanted the story to really portray emotion and have a realistic feel to it. Louise and Oscar were the perfect people to pick because they both enjoy drama and were very helpful and got into their characters perfectly. 

Textual Analysis 1 - Wildfire

Textual Analysis

In this textual analysis I am going to be analysing a music video by the artist Sbtrkt called ‘Wildfire’. This song is a hybrid of two genres, alternative pop and dubstep, and I have been able to recognise this due to certain codes and conventions which have been used throughout the music video. The music video for this track is concept based as there is no story line  however, is set behind an idea. The target audience for this song would be older teenagers and young adults, due to the visuals on screen during the music video and the contemporary genre.

There are many different types of camera work used throughout the ‘Wildfire’ video, but mainly extreme close ups. We see a lot of extreme close ups of the characters body parts, for example her eyes and forehead with sweat dripping down, her hands grabbing onto the bed sheets and her hair flying around in the wind. All of these create confusion for the audience and leaving them wanting to watch more in order to find out what is happening to her. There are also many medium shots of the girls sitting on the bed moving in the wind. These camera techniques are typical for an alternative pop/dubstep music video, and so they conform to the codes and conventions for the genre. Another typical code and convention of this genre is the music and visuals being parallel. ‘Wildfire’ shows this when the music and tempo speeds up, so does what is happening on screen.

The editing used in this music video by Sbtrkt works well with the music and the visuals. An example of this is how the cuts are parallel with the music. As the tempo gets faster, the length of the shots also become shorter, and longer when the tempo slows down. This conforms to the codes and conventions of alternative pop and dubstep music videos. When an extreme close up is on screen, long shot duration is usually used to show detail of what’s on screen as it is usually an enigma for the rest of the narrative. An example of this is when there is an extreme close up of the female characters face with sweat dripping down her forehead. A blurred effect has been used throughout the music video, especially on an extreme close up and when there is only one object in focus on screen.

The location of the music video challenges the usual codes and conventions of alternative pop and dubstep as it is filmed in a bedroom, whereas stereo-typically it would be filmed in a club or a dirty, dark urban location. The lighting in the room is low key, and so this matches the atmosphere of the video and what is happening on screen. This conforms to the usual dark colour palette in other music videos of the same genre. The movement of the character is very slow and bizarre, with her grabbing and grasping onto bed sheets and the carpet etc, until the tempo speeds up and so does the character, when she starts to make bigger movements as if she was getting sucked up by the fan.

Andrew Goodwin argues that music videos are associated with 7 areas, and I am going to explain and relate some of them to the ‘Wildfire’ video. Goodwin believes that there should be constant references between the lyrics and visuals on screen, but this video challenges this as there is no relationship between the lyrics and what is happening on screen. He also suggests that there should be a relationship between the music and visuals, and this video conforms to this as when the music gets faster, so does the visuals on screen. I think that there notions of looking in this video, as the female character in the video may be seen as sexually appealing in what she is wearing, and so may be represented as an object. The ‘Wildfire’ music video is concept based, as there is no story line for the audience to follow as the visuals do not match the lyrics. The conceptual idea for the music video is somewhat about the female character being intoxicated or on narcotics. This may be from the way in which she is moving in a strange, disorientated way and the way in which her eyes are rolled back into her head for some of the video. It seems to the audience that maybe she is hallucinating, as we can see that she keeps looking at the fan, and it gives off the impression she is being controlled by it by her body language and movement. We can recognise this type of music video as there is no obvious story line like a narrative music video, and it is not performance based as the artist himself is not performing, and the codes and conventions are very different to those in a conceptual music video.

In conclusion, it is evident that camera work has had a major part in constructing the genre through using many extreme close ups of the character and their body parts, as this is a very typical code and convention for a music video within this genre. The editing has also played a big part in constructing the genre as it also conforms to the codes and conventions of a alternative pop music video, especially the length of the shots in comparison to the tempo of the music. 

Media Production Schedule

Textual Analysis: Video Games by Lana Del Ray

Textual Analysis:

Video Games:  by Lana Del Rey

In this essay I will be analysing the music video ‘Video Games’ by the artist Lana Del Rey. I have chosen this music video because it is under the genre of alternative pop which comes under the same genre we have chosen for our music video project. Lana Del Rey’s target audience being towards young/ youthful people has made her release of alternative songs such as ‘Born to die’ and ‘Blue Jean’ very popular and therefore making her a very well-known artist. After watching her music video of ‘Video Games’ it illustrates a narrative/concept based video which gives my group and I great ideas of what we can come up with when it comes to planning our own music video.

To explain how the above areas I have mentioned in my introduction have been conducted I can analyse the codes and conventions of the music video, to clearly illustrate how we can recognise the genre and type of music video it is. Firstly, after watching the video throughout the camera work used varied between conventions of  alternative pop music videos, in Lana Del Rey’s music video many close up shots were shown showing her emotion and facial expressions. The close ups on the artist also emphasised the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist, which is a key convention of pop and indie. The angles varied showing different shots in different perspectives and the movement of the camera also changed throughout including tilts and tracking with the use handheld camerawork. Editing is a very important factor to this music video as you can see through the large amount of jump cuts showing a sudden change from one scene to another, this editing technique is used a lot on indie/alternative music videos. Animation is used in this music video highlighting a more concept base type and also it looks like real life footage. Above all the mise en scene contributes the most to the music video, making the type and genre more notable, the setting changes throughout the video as explained through the amount of jump shots used. However the artist remains in the same setting during the course of video in a white room but each time wearing different clothing whereas the rest of the video is trying to give us some sort of story/concept. The lighting also changes in the video to artificial lighting to ambient which emphasises a particular mood. The colour palette of the music video changes from black and white to bright and colourful which again creates a specific atmosphere. The clothing of the artist is causal and stylish which reflects the genre more towards indie, influencing the youthful target audience.

Applying Andrew Goodwin’s theory to the video I can analyse the proposes Goodwin made to what makes a music video. In Lana Del Rey’s music video there is some relationship between lyrics and visuals, for example, on the shot of the artist singing she makes a hand reference of the number two whilst singing it and also another scene where a guy is skating and falls as she says ‘falling’ in her lyrics. Although the track is quite depressing and sad when the tempo gets faster and more upbeat the visuals do compliment the music therefore showing a relationship between music and visuals. The genre characteristics are clear as we analysed above about the close up shots and mise en scene ranging from pop to indie making it alternative pop. There is not any intertextual reference in the music video of ‘Video Games’ that the audience would relate to. The music video is narrative showing us some sort of story, for instance we see scenes of people enjoying themselves: cycling, swimming etc… however the story is not clear when it changes to scenes for example of drunken rich people and animation cartoons. On the other hand it does push towards concept base as well as it does demonstrate some meaning as the artist is showing emotion and the lyrics explain what is being shown even though there is not clear narrative to the music video itself.

In conclusion by conducting this textual analysis it is clear that those specific areas such as the editing (for instance the jump shots) are key elements in making the genre prominent. The codes and conventions of the music video help the audience to understand how each factor is being presented i.e. lighting, costume… On the whole, completing this textual analysis will help the group and I make decisions on how the genre alternative pop should be illustrated and what techniques to use when we go to make our music video ‘Disrespect’ by Delilah. 

PPT: Analysing Alternative Pop Videos

PPT: Analysing Alternative Pop Videos

Location Report

Target Audience

Slide 4:




Slide 16:

Test Shots

GROUP 4 Animatic

PPT TASK: Analysing Two Different Alternative Pop Music Videos. Explaining Editing Technique and Mise en Scene

Filming Risk Assessment

Video Shoot Shot List

Story Board

We think that our story board is considered to be creative as we have used many different shot types, including close ups, medium shots and long shots. These camera techniques, especially the close ups conform to the codes and conventions of alternative pop. We also included a pattern of slow motion in our storyboard, which also conforms to the characteristics of an alternative pop music video. Although we conformed to several elements of alternative pop videos, we noticed that we challenged it in some ways, for example we used a light colour palette for our video, whereas we noticed in alternative pop videos they usually use a darker colour palette. This creates originality for our music video.