Research Blog: Music Video Conventions

I have decided to do my music video for the song red bone. The song Red-Bone by Childish Gambino is in the R&B genre of music. The song is slow and has a soft/medium beat. Most times within a R&B song the music video goes along with what the singer is singing.  But sometimes, the director will make the video have no correlation with the words.

• Typically within R&B music videos, the setting follows the narrative. The set is usually in a location where it is bare and the amount of objects in the setting is minimal, unless the narrative for the song calls for more things. This allows the audience to concentrate on the artist and it shows that the artist is significant in the video.

• The costumes vary between each R&B songs music video. In most, the actor/singer will wear fashionable clothing. For example in men R&B songs they will wear : designer shoes, men’s jeans, baseball caps, etc. They also wear jewelry  but the jewelry is less subtle and low key jewelry unlike hip hop artist. Since this song is considered a slow R&B song, the actor will most likely wear neutral colored clothing to convey easy/relaxed moods.

• In R&B music videos, specifically slow R&B music videos the lighting is important. Most times these songs will have videos that are usually in greyscale/sepia and colors and the lighting is typically soft. The lighting will be low key lighting or three point lighting on some scenes. Some directors use natural lighting for slow R&B songs to show a sense of reality and to show emotion.

• In R&B music videos, the artist makeup and clothes will be dry natural and nude colored to convey a sense of natural beauty. Sometimes in male R&B music videos, the actor will have tattoos to show a sense of masculinity and the attract female audiences.

• The body language within this genre is music varies from song to song since lyrics will be different. Generally, if the song is about love the actors facial expressions will be happy and the body movement and posture of the actor will be good to show happiness. If the song is about heartbreak, the facial expressions will be displeasing and the actor will have bad body posture to show sadness.

• The props within these commercials are minimal. The props will alongside with the setting so if the actor is in a bed room there will be the normal things within a bedroom (bed, nightstand, dresser, etc.) The props vary for each setting that the actor is shown in but it’s never anything that significantly stands out