Genre Conventions

Julian Casablancas & The Voidz - Human Sadness
There are lots of conventions to signify the genre and style of music. The video has lots of performance shots with instruments such as guitars and drums. The performance shots tend to be of the band included with the lead singer, as they want the audience to appreciate the music as well as the lyrics. This is to represent the genre of music by showing the instruments used in the song. This is a typical convention of rock music videos as it shows the style of music. Costume is also has a huge impact of the genre of the music. Typically the band will wear darker clothing, including dark black leather jackets. This signifies the genre and style of the music. In this video, the clothing of the band typically represents the song as if it was written in the 80's or 90's instead of 2015. Also the hair styles of the band members tend to have longer hair to represent their personality and the audience can assume their interest in music. This signifies to the viewer they type of music they are going to hear along side the video.

Lots of rock videos also have conventions of war in the narrative. This is typical narrative idea as it conveys the style and genre of music. Some rock videos can come across to be aggressive meaning that the aspect of war would be a suitable topic to base a video on. As the whole idea behind war is to fight and be aggressive against the other side, means that the music can come across this way. The director deciding to use war as an aspect means that it would be appropriate for the genre of music. 

Another typical convention of rock videos is the background of the shot. Throughout the video, lots of shots with storms and lightning is shown to signify the style of music. Using these shots shows the mood of the music relating it to the visuals. The clothing and guitar conventions are also used within this one shot to further apply to the conventions and signify the rock genre. The storm suggests the mood of the music therefore applying to the aggressive war convention too. This supports the aggression form the song making it link more with the music. This shot also links with the progression of the song, by using the storm, suggests the tempo of the song. This is typical of rock videos as it tells the viewer the mood and tempo of the song at this time.

This next shot shows a character in the narrative being aggressive towards another person. This supports the convention of aggression due to the violence in this shot. Using this fight scene clearly represents the mood of the song at this point in time, the use of dark shots with low key lighting also supports this. Low key lighting is another typical convention of rock videos due to it creating a dark atmosphere or theme for the video so it matches the mood of the song. Although high key lighting is used on occasion to emphasize the focus on the performance of the band.



The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness
The music video is all performance, therefore lots of instruments are shown, such as guitars and drums. The whole band is featured in the video, therefore applying to typical rock conventions. This is due to the director and artists, wanting the music to be as just as important as the lyrics. The performance shots use high key lighting to emphasis the focus on the band and the music. This is a typical convention of the rock genre, as it shoes the importance of the band towards the song. Towards the end of the video, blue light is used to represent the mood of the song and how the viewer should interpret this. The blue light connotes the mood of the song therefore linking it to the visuals. Costume is another typical convention of the rock genre, as the clothing that they wear represents their personality, which connotes the genre of music.

CRX - Ways to Fake It
The music video is also performance, meaning that the typical instrument convention is obviously used. High key lighting is also used within the performance shots emphasizing the focus on the band. The video is set outside in a secluded area so the focus is on the band instead of the background behind them. Due to the performance shots being set and the main focus of the car drifting around a race track suggests the style and representation of the personality of the lead singer. Using cars in the video is not a typical convention of a rock video but, they are quite a common occurrence, in the videos. The clothing of the band is a typical convention representing the genre of music.



CRX - On Edge
The music video is all performance, therefore guitars and drums are shown within the video. Black and white is also used which is a typical convention of rock music videos as it represents the mood of the song. Using a combination of black and white and the grainy disrupted TV signal lines makes the video look older, therefore representing the music style as an older song. The editing style is fast pace, meaning the cuts are frequent and shot lengths are minimal. The speed and tempo of the music, is represented by the pace of the editing and the narrative shots. Due to the close-ups of the central protagonist, the viewer can see emotions of the character clearly. As they represent themselves as an angry character, means that the music is quite likely to be aggressive too. The close-ups are typical conventions in rock music videos, especially in narrative or concept shots. The close-ups help us to focus on the characters emotions meaning we can denote and decode their emotions and link it back to the music.



Wolfmother - New Moon Rising
This video is also another performance video, therefore guitars and drums are shown in the video. Due to the style of music, the editing style adds filters and distortion to the image, to make the video feel older therefore applying with the style of the music. Using the distortion represents the music therefore the director wants the audience to decode that the song is an older style, even though it was not published in the 80's or 90's. The set has very high key lighting meaning therefore making the subjects in the shot very hard to see, as they are silhouettes. This is due to the director encoding the idea of them hiding their identity, which connotes the meaning of the song, and portrays their personalities.



Volbeat - Devil's bleeding crown 
This video is both performance and narrative. The band are shown playing with an audience therefore there are drums and guitars shown again as in many videos of this style of music. It is quite dark with dark clothing which is typical of the heavy rock/metal genre with a fight as part of the narrative that shows aggression which fits with there style of music. The close ups are mainly of the lead singer and main character of the narrative which means throughout the video they are focused on.



Five finger death punch - Wash it all away 
As like many of the previous videos this one is also performance with the band playing live to an audience which is a common theme with rock and metal videos. It shows them performing on a tour with the band on stage and backstage. It has close ups of the band members and members of the audience which shows their facial expressions and how they are reacting to the music. It also has fire as part which adds to the aggressive tone of the music.



Avenged sevenfold - Hail to the king 
This video is black and white with skulls shown throughout the video which emphasis that it is of the metal genre. It is a performance video with the band playing in a studio with rums and guitars and close ups of these and the lead singer. The editing is quite fast paced to fit with the music. Religious symbols are shown throughout the video along with skulls which are both common themes within the metal genre.



Julian Casablacas + the voidz - Where no eagles fly 
This video is performance with close ups of the band performing and their instruments throughout the video along with shots of the band and some concept shots. The editing is fast and flickery with images that appear and distortion the the video with some shots in black and white and others with low key lighting with gives a dark feeling to the video. This makes the video look as though it is a punk videos from the 70s/80s which fits with how the song sounds as it is more of the post punk genre.



Typical conventions of this genre
All of the videos, generally have images of guitars and drums. This seems to be a typical convention of most rock videos as it represents the genre of music, through the instruments.
Another typical conventions of the sub-genre (noise-rock) is the distortion and black and white imagery. The distortions suggest the representation of the age of the song, this then relates to the music as it fits in with the style of music.
Another convention is the settings of the shots that connote aggression. This is to relate to the mood and meaning of the music.
This relates to the convention of aggressive actions between characters within the narrative. This also relates to the mood of the music.