Conventions of Rap/Alternative hip hop music videos

In rap music video's there are quite a lot of distinctive conventions that are used in the more popular rap videos and this is shown by how much these sorts of things and shots are used. As the song we have chosen to do is a cross between rap and alternative hip hop it does not use these conventions for the same reason and sometimes at all from other songs with the same genre as the song we have chosen that we have seen.

The general conventions in music videos which are the same genre cross over as the one we are doing tend to use a lot of close up shots, some sort of narrative story, lots of body language and outdoors settings.

The use of a lot of close ups is due to how the artist wants to get their emotions across but they may not feel that just the lyrics to the song are enough or they may be worried that a line may be misunderstood when decoded by the reader but when you see the emotions of the artist, it will help you understand what they mean by what is being sung and it will help you feel how they are feeling or were when they wrote it.


A lot of songs of this genre tend to tell a story in the song and will have snippets of this in the video but they will not end up telling the full story or they may not necessarily end with a happy ending but with the artist being quite sad and down. This once again helps show emotion and it makes us think about the artist and what they are going through and how they are now and how they were when they wrote it. Usually the story is about a relationship that may have not gone well or how they wanted and this is usually shown by them being close at the start of the video but as the video goes on they are separated and sometimes the person who was the partner may have found someone else.

As previously stated, artists who write songs of these genres like to try and get their emotions across and when they don't feel it is enough to just use the lyrics another way that they may try and create emotion in the audience is by using body language or hand gestures. This helps the viewer as they may see something that they recognise from their lives and therefore it will feel more real and they feel a stronger connection between themselves and the artist. It also helps stop the song from being misinterpreted and heard in the wrong mind set which can happen a lot with rap songs due to the reputation that they have.


The last main convention that is used in almost all rap/alternative hip hop music videos is some sort of outdoor setting at some point. I think that the reason for this is due to its link with rap music and rap music being known to have a lot of shots on the street. This is where this comparison end due to there no being any gangs involved or much else of what would be in your stereotypical rap video but I feel that this is used to build a link t show that some rappers, like Watsky, who have also added alternative hip hop to their genres, can show that they are still true to their roots and still have some of that rap genre in them.