Camera movement is used to trace the performer(s) and follow their movement, the pace and timing of this helps to make the viewer feel involved and primarily makes the video more exciting.
Mise en scene can tell us as a viewer a lot about a song, this helps us to gain an understanding of the music. This includes things like clothing, lighting, colouring, props and settings. For example an artist could be dressed in black clothing, sitting in a room on his/her own and filmed in black and white. The dull colours would reflect the artists down mood in the song, this can also be supported by the type of lighting. It could also suggest that the artist is lonely or isolated because of being in an room without any company. Colour schemes tell us a lot in music videos, they can set the mood of the song and thus create a type of atmosphere. Typically indie/rock videos have dark colours and pop/hip-hop videos have more bright colours.
HipHop/Rap/RnB
In this genre of music we seem to get a reoccurring theme of women and money. Most of these music videos are set at parties or nightclubs and it shows the artist having a good time surrounded by women. Expensive items are also flaunted showing the wealth of the artist and this is also reflected in the lyrics of these songs, lines like 'money over bitches' are used. A lot of over-cranking is used in these music videos to create emphasis of the emotion and the location they are at. Again to show off the wealth and location long shots seem to be used often in this genre type. Bright colours in these videos are used to reflect then cheerful mood. The video below shows most of these aspects especially the idea of the video being set at a party.
Pop
Pop music is mostly associated with happiness, this is shown in the music videos through the mise en scene. Bright colours are often used and the artist is normally dancing around expressing their emotion. The lighting is nearly always high-key to reflect the upbeat music and mood. The editing is normally of a fast pace to create excitement and to please the target audience which tends to be the younger generation. The artist is normally singing in the video and there are lots of close-ups on his/her face to emphasise their joyous mood. Costumes can vary a little bit, sometimes the artist can be wearing quite extravagant clothing to make a statement like Katy Perry in 'California Girls'. Sometimes the artist can just be wearing clothing of the latest fashion and trends. Below is a current music video which has the bright colour scheme and which therefore suggests a happiness about it. The performer has a modern and up to date look about her as shown by her costume, hair and make-up.
Rock/Metal
This genre of music often has a depressing manner about it and this is reflected in the music videos with the low key lighting and dark colours. The bands often wear black clothing and sometimes even dark eye make up to show a sense of evil. Often the artists have dark clothes an black hair but a very pale face to show their lack of emotion. A band known to have a scary nature about them is Slipknot, they wear masks which put the viewer on edge. The pace of editing in this music genre is normally fast to go with the fast pace music and close-ups are used to show the instruments being played. The majority of these music videos are performance. Below is a music video by The Rasmus, the lead singer has the stereotypical rock look as I described above with the dark clothing and hair but white face. The video has consistent low-key lighting.
