Typical conventions of music videos and assessment of their use

For the following task, I incorportated the results of my audience feedback. This is through the way inwhich all of my examples come from the person who three (out of ten) of my audience felt 'embodied the essence of the pop video'; Rihanna. The following conventions are all taken from Rihanna videos with assessments, regarding how well and to what extent the convention has been utilised.

The above clip, from 2011 video California King Bed, has a short piece of introduction before the song begins. The thirty second long scene establishes the main locations of the video setting and showcases the performing artist within these different locations, aswell as within diferent outfits (which is espcially attributed to femal pop). It uses a variety of angles and makes use of diegetic sound to establish a proper sense of location.

The above clip is from 2010's Only Girl (In The World). The convention seen in this clip is the relationship between lyrics and visuals. Whilst seeing about a desire to feel like the "only girl in the world" Rihanna is depicted as the only character within the entire video, and effectively pictured against huge open landscapes to heighten the sense of isolation.



The above convention is a voyeuristic treatment of the female body. Hardly suprising given the appearance of the subject in question and the nature of the song, itself, the video for 2009's Rude Boy, features numerous revealing outfits and provocative dancing, as seen in the sample above.

The above convention is a relationship between music and visuals. The final chorus of the song , lyrically, deals with a sense of euphoria during sexual relations, and with love in general, and the final chorus is visually reflected in the quick editing between different shots, as well as the framing of the dance sequence and the red fliter/smoke apparent on screen, in 2010's What's My Name (feat. Drake).

The final convention, above, is the need for lots of close ups of the artist, which comes from 2007's Don't Stop The Music. Throughout the clip, there are several close-ups of Rihanna, from three different environments, all of which see her singing into the camera.