RS - General Music Video Codes + Conventions: Initial List

1. A narrative. Basically a story, possibly to do with the lyrics or possibly just made up by the producer of the music video.
2. Clips of the band playing. This can be cross cut between the story and the band playing to show the band is doing something and can play instruments, whilst cutting to the narrative to show a story within the video.
3. Lip-syncing is used by actors or band members on some or all of the lyrics depending on the video
4. Male/female gaze is used to attract a large audience and to give people a reason to watch it. Using attractive women or even men can attract the audience and is called the "male gaze" theory
5. Short takes. These are used because the target audience for music videos is youths. They get impatient with long takes and turn over the channel, with short takes more will happen because there will be more shots.
6. Usually some sort of dancing if the genre tends to be dance, rap etc 
7. The focus is very much on the frontman/woman and they do this by isolating them from the rest of the band or by angling them at the front of the band etc 
8. SFX (Special effects) are used to make the video more interesting to watch and look more professional
9. The frontman/woman gazes into the camera, as if to gaze at the audience