Conventions of Pop videos

All pop music videos use similar conventions. Some common conventions of pop music videos are:

• A narrative – a lot of videos tell a story to do with the song, usually about a relationship, although not for the whole video. The narrative is usually spilt up with shots of the artists performing.


• Close-ups of artists – all pop videos feature the artists of the song. Most videos use a lot of close-ups of the artists because they’re the main selling point of the video, although other people may feature, especially if there is a narrative.


• Artist performance – Although the artist of the song is shown performing at some point during the video, it’s not necessary for the artist to be shown as part of a band or playing an instrument. Usually the artist will just be lipsyncing to the song and possibly performing a dance routine.



• Matching outfits – if the video features a group of artists, it’s likely they will be wearing similar outfits (i.e. the same coloured cloths).


• Women are typically shown as being strong and independent in videos by female artists. In contrast women are objectified to some degree in videos by male pop artists, although not always.


• Men feature in almost all pop videos in some way – usually in the form of “the bad boyfriend”.