AVRIL LAVIGNE - CODES AND CONVENTIONS

PREP MUSIC VIDEO CODES AND CONVENTIONS 
To prepare for the exam, we look at the media language of music videos, such as their codes and conventions below. For prep, copy the points in colour then add your own points in black.

1. Performance - the singer / band are seen to be singing and playing (including lip synching), to provide authenticity, so that followers believe in the talent and can see their star. Record labels sign stars and promote them  to ensure sales. Avril Lavigne sings throughout the video using a mike and draws a huge crowd of fans around her when she jumps onto a car roof in the street. She sings with great passion, energy and conviction, holding the mike close to her mouth. Close-ups show her every word (lip synching is a feature of music videos.) She performs for her fans and for her 'boyfriend' the sk8er boi who features in the narrative. Screens often feature in music video and the sk8er boi is videoing Avril Lavigne as he gazes adoringly up at her. She returns his gaze as she sings about 'we rock each other's world'. The performance element creates authenticity (fans have proof of her talent) because we see her sing.
2. Star - use of close-ups, sometimes direct eye contact with audience, to build relationship with audience. In this music video, we see a lot of close ups on Avril Lavigne's face. These close ups help us understand her personality and in this video she has quite an attitude and can be very brash. She is portrayed as quite rebellious and cocky. There is an extreme close up of the actual skater boy where she is singing a song about him and the camera moves to his face and we see a extreme close up of him gazing back at her. This shows us that he obviously loves her as well.  
3. The visuals (what the star and other characters are seen doing) illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics (the 'story in the words'). Illustration = the visuals play out the story more or less literally; amplify = the words in the lyrics are only the starting point and the story develops in other directions; contradiction / disjuncture = the visuals do not interpret the words of the lyrics and may even show something contradictory. Throughout the whole of the video we see an occurring symbol of a star which is helping to promote her recent concert, it is also a tag for her gang. The star can also represent more as it tells us that Avril herself is the star and can be seen as more superior to the rest of her gang. When she is singing about the other girl and mocking her and saying that five years from now that girl will be having a baby all alone but as she is singing these lyrics she is doing the complete opposite. She does this as she is trying to make the point that she is independent and can still have fun, unlike the other girl who has a baby all alone.  
4. The narrative usually features the performer in 'real life' situations but often with experimental types of film making such as hand-held, dramatic camera angles, symbolic codes and lighting. A lot of the camera work is very hand held. Like in the scenes with the cars we really feel like we are travelling with them as the cameras are following the gang.  
5. The visuals are usually cut to the beat of the music; the editing is often fast-paced; there is often use of montage, ellipsis and intercutting, stylish effects. the opening montage really sets the speed of the cuts and shows us what pace the rest of the video is going  to be at. The editing is very fast paced because the music and song is also very fast pace so they fit together. It is also marked that Lavigne's gang is preparing for a concert and have left there mark all around town, to mark there territory.
6. Refrain - repeated chorus, sometimes with variations. During he refrain the visuals intensify the pace. We see her and her gang setting up the concerts and plugging in all the amplifiers, the crowd also start to join in very quickly. The refrain helps tie the whole thing together.