Memes & Tropes of Music Videos

Music videos of all genres feature certain memes and tropes throughout, signifying to consumers of the text, what kind of genre the video is. There are many different examples of this e.g. Men Without Hats' Safety Dance. Some media works feature dancing and this makes sense when the scene is set in a night club, a prom or even a concert. However in some videos (like this one) there is an elaborate plot going on that the story is concentrating on but dancing is still featured in there somewhere, even though the story should be viewed as serious. This trope is typically seen in films about dance like Step Up and humorous/parody music videos.

One of the key features of a music video concept is camera movement. There is a type of trope known as a conveyor belt video, this is when the camera continually tracks to one side, with (in general) no jump cuts, creating the impression that the scene is on a conveyor belt. Coldplay did this in the music video 'The Scientist'. The actions were filmed backwards and the singing forward. The video helped to visually show consumers what the lyrics are trying to say as one of the repeated lines in the song is "I'm going back to the start."