Evaluation: Use, development and challenges of codes and conventions in our music video

There are many codes and conventions to music videos, goth general and specific to certain genres. Most of these were used and developed in our case, although several were challenged.

Tattoos did not play a main
part in our visuals

We chose to challenge codes and conventions relating specifically to rock videos, in that we only used a solo singer instead of a full band playing instruments as is common. There were also no visible piercings or tattoos (with the exception of a helix piercing), which goes against one of the main codes of rock. We challenged those as although we created the persona of a rock star with a Gothic image, we did not want to fall into stereotyping because we used a pop punk song. We also did not include the piercings or tattoos as the ones our performer has are in inconspicuous places and for them to be seen we would not have been able to challenge our last convention: overt sexuality.

Overt Sexuality in the music video
for Motley Crue's "Girls Girls Girls

We chose to tone down the sexuality due to the subject matter. Instead we chose to hint at it by using very vibrant red and neon pink lipsticks. They highlighted the mouth and lips of the female, which subconsciously insinuates sexuality and sexual acts, though the colours are pertinent to the rock star feel in regards to the red, and the pop aspect of the song with the neon pink. We had our performer in more modest clothing as instead of having a breakup song where the singer ended the relationship, she was the "dumpee" and is lamenting. This makes it harder to include sexuality as she is not trying to show her ex what s/he is now missing. This deliberately contradicts Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze as our performer is not cut into body parts or dressed in a provocative way in order to appeal to a male audience. 

We used many codes and conventions of both rock videos and of music videos in general. For example we used some of Goodwin's codes in that we featured editing that matches the beat of the song, screens within screens (though in the form of photographs), and we had a mixed narrative and performance video, the narrative of which document the 'Five Stages Of Grief', which will be discussed later. By using generic codes and conventions our piece is instantly recognisable as a music video.

Hayley Williams in one of her
trademark Ramones shirts

The use of specific codes and conventions such as dark lighting, costume/make-up choices and other aspects of mis-en scene make the video identifiable as a rock video. To emphasise this we featured merchandise from other well known bands (something which Hayley Williams (lead singer of Paramore) is also known for doing, reminding the audience we have covered a song originally by Paramore), dark/black clothing with heavy make up to highlight the Gothic feel we were aiming for. We also included fire and candles, which increase the darkness of the video, although the most typically rock part of the video was the insertion of an earthquake effect in post production. As it was coupled with a shot of the performer with an instrument in front of fire projected onto green screen we feel this gave our most significant feature of a rock video.

Amy Lee, lead singer of
Evanescence and makeup
inspiration

The inclusion of fire as part of our Gothic feel develops this theme. Fire in music videos is mostly included in heavy metal, metalcore, industrial and deathcore videos, insinuating that there is a much darker side to our character than meets the eye. This can be linked to the costume choice of a winged shirt with a weeping angel on it and the titles of the tracks on our digipak. The weeping angel can also be connected to our main theme of the five stages of grief.

The five stages of grief, also known as the Kübler-Ross model (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) is our composite theme for our video. We show our character working her way through these stages, although we mixed the order they happen in up and focused primarily on anger and depression. The use of this allows a narrative to be set up without overpowering the performance of the video. Many teenage girls also feel as if they go through these stages during a break up so the video and song will connect with them more.