Generic Conventions Of Music Videos; Development Of Technical Codes:

The key innovation in the development of the modern music video was, of course, video recording and editing processes, along with the development of a number of related effects such as chroma-key or Green/Blue Screen

The advent of high-quality colour videotape recorders and portable video cameras enabled many pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the relatively high costs of using film

In the 1990s, a number of technical codes became common:

Most common form of editing associated with the music promo is fast cut montage


Many images impossible to grasp on first viewing thus ensuring multiple viewing


Split screens, colourisation are also commonly used effects


Non-representational techniques, in which the musical artist is never shown, become more common


Lack of edits, Long take/steadicam also a common experimentation.However, as the genre developed music video directors increasingly turned to 35mm film as the preferred medium, while others mixed film and video. By the mid-1980s releasing a music video to accompany a new single had become standard.