LANGUAGE IN MEDIA

PREP MUSIC VIDEO CODES AND CONVENTIONS 
To prepare for the exam, we look at the media language of music videos, such as their codes and conventions below. For prep, copy the points in colour then add your own points in black. 

1. Performance - the singer / band are seen to be singing and playing (including lip synching), to provide authenticity, so that followers believe in the talent and can see their star. Record labels sign stars and promote them  to ensure sales. Avril Lavigne sings throughout the video using a mike and draws a huge crowd of fans around her when she jumps onto a car roof in the street. She sings with great passion, energy and conviction, holding the mike close to her mouth. Close-ups show her every word (lip synching is a feature of music videos.) She performs for her fans and for her 'boyfriend' the sk8er boi who features in the narrative. Screens often feature in music video and the sk8er boi is videoing Avril Lavigne as he gazes adoringly up at her. She returns his gaze as she sings about 'we rock each other's world'. The performance element creates authenticity (fans have proof of her talent) because we see her sing.
2. Star - use of close-ups, sometimes direct eye contact with audience, to build relationship with audience

          Close ups in music videos help to build a relationship. It creates the feeling of authenticity and            helps to build a relationship between hr and the viewer. She makes eye contact with the                    camera which can make the viewer feel as if though she was talking to us rather than singing.            Her cocky attitude and her clothes are made to make us feel as if though we talking to her as            if we new her personally.

1. The visuals (what the star and other characters are seen doing) illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics (the 'story in the words'). Illustration = the visuals play out the story more or less literally; amplify = the words in the lyrics are only the starting point and the story develops in other directions; contradiction / disjuncture = the visuals do not interpret the words of the lyrics and may even show something contradictory.

          The editing is a series of fast cuts to new locations in time with the beat of the song. The fast cuts blend                 with the song as the hardness of the song and the metal tune are hard along with it. In the background of almost every scene there is picture of a red star; at first you don't notice it as much. It acts almost like a subliminal message. Later on in the music video she refers in the lyrics that a woman stays at home feeding a baby, the music video, however, does not aid that. It does not even show a picture, this suggests that she is happy with it as she has a group that practically worships her. It is her comparing her life of fun and rebellion and a very independent life to the static life of the other girls life which is boring in her eye. 

1. The narrative usually features the performer in 'real life' situations but often with experimental types of film making such as hand-held, dramatic camera angles, symbolic codes and lighting

At the end of the song, Avril and the supposed Sk8r boi make eye contact, as Avril sings her lyrics narrate the scenes happening right before our eyes.

1. The visuals are usually cut to the beat of the music; the editing is often fast-paced; there is often use of montage, ellipsis and intercutting, stylish effects

When the video is cut to the beat it helps to convey the message and adds dynamic effect. In the music video it cuts to her and her 'Gang' messing around and doing mischievous things. Which helps to conjure up what her life might be like.

1. Refrain - repeated chorus, sometimes with variations

The visuals intensify as she is singing the repeated chorus. The camera angles add an intense side of the chorus. The experimental and dynamic camera angles add a very rustic effect to the video and make the viewer feel as though they are there too.