3. Codes and Conventions

Possessing knowledge regarding the typical codes and conventions of content within a music video is essential, as it will help me to understand the themes, narratives and performances necessary to create an appealing music video.

Genre
The dance music genre involves music composed to accompany dancing. Sub-genres include disco, electronic and dansband music. Dance music videos usually involve quick, fast-paced cuts between shots, as well as high-angle shots to accompany this. This combination allows the audience to get a sense of the environment and settings that the video takes place in, whilst also keeping audience attention on the video. Close-ups are also much more common than usual, as a large focus is placed on the artist, as to covey the roles of those within the video. However, a wide variety of shot types are also used.

Sigala's 'Easy Love' uses frequent fast paced cuts to keep the video flowing, and to enhance the performance within the video. This technique helps to keep the audience interested; if the shots are too long and/or uneventful, the audience is likely to click away.

The setting is often representative of an everyday setting, such as the suburbs, a train station, or a school. This creates a sense of realism, and helps to represent the audience well, and allows them to relate to the video, as activities in the video are ones likely to occur in the lives of the target audience. Typically, there are a lot of things going on in the background, although this is often not the case. This is also to help keep the audience's focus on the video.

Marshmello's 'Alone' uses largely suburban backgrounds, in order to create a sense of realism within the video, and help the narrative to progress. Examples of suburban backgrounds in this video include an American neighbourhood, and a high school. Backgrounds like these also a good at relating to the target AB demographic, as much of this audience group live in these settings in the real world.

Slow motion shots are also a common occurance, as they are a brilliant contrast to the fast paced editing. They allow the audience to focus on aspects of the setting, characters and performance that may not stand out with the fast paced editing. This only further submerses the audience into the music video.

In Sigala's 'Sweet Love', slow motion shots are frequently used throughout the video, allowing the audience to focus on each and every one of the many characters within the video. In a video where everything happens extremely fast, this technique is very suitable, and allows the audience to fully immerse themselves in every occurance within the video.

Website

Typically, artists websites use an introductory page, which then contains a link to the bulk of the website, or redirects the user to content below the introductory page. This introductory page straight away displays the branding and artist theme to the user. This is done with background colours, images, fonts, social media and other elements, which vary from artist to artist.

This image is the first page of Marshmello's website. A vibrant yellow has been used for the background and image, which reflects the colourful personality Marshmello is known for in his videos. Image wise, the page is mostly blank, symbolising Marshmello's also quiet personality (the artist wears a mask and never says a word), with only a balloon with the iconic double cross and smile that is on Marshmello's mask. All of these features reflect the artist in some way, and thus help reinforce the Marshmello brand. In the top right, there is a button to 'enter site'; a common feature on artist websites.

On the main page, artists will typically advertise their latest activities to the public (i.e. displaying their latest music video on their webpage, or advertising a film they recently wrote music for). The brand identity is also kept consistent, with the same/similar fonts, symbols, colours and images used as on the introductory page. The artist will also reference cross-platform media, such as social media, like a Twitter feed. This help users understand what the artist has been doing in their life, and presents them as much more down to Earth than expected, as they use the same platforms as the everyday consumer.

This is the main page of Marshmello's website. The font synergises with the introductory page, with the Marshmello logo also being displayed on the top of the page, as it was in the image and on the bottom right of the introductory page. The artist's videos are also displayed on the main page, so the audience are able to view the artist's work without leaving the page. Finally, Marshmello's Instagram feed has also been linked in, so his fans are able to view his recent activities. This is an example of integrating different types of media, in order to synergise and build a brand identity for the artist.