Rap Conventions

Main Conventions of rap music videos

The performer will rap towards the camera in the centre of the shot almost like they are talking to the audience. This shows that the rapper is dominant or at least trying to give that impression. A lot of the time this kind of shot will be using a fish eyed type camera lenses at a low angle. This will often be the main part of the performance section of rap videos, with the other section being mainly narrative heavy. The shots edits will normally be fast paced- depending of the songs tempo. Longer cuts normally means the song is slower as the editing is to the beat of the song. This is an example of Andrew Goodwin’s theory ‘Thought Beats’. Rap music videos on the whole are a rappers performance mainly with the occasional narrative heavy videos. An Example of a mixture of narrative and performance is Eminem’s ‘lose yourself’. Another conventions portrayed throughout rap is the common idea of artists talking about their wealth. If money is not shown then things that will represent their wealth will be shown such as guns, drugs and cars. The rap music videos are very incorporate Laura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ theory and  John Berger’s ‘Ways of seeing’ both theories are heavily involved in rap music because of the objectification of women as an object that is only present for male entertainment. Costume Conventions are usually: casual/baggy clothing, snapbacks or flat peaked caps, chains and hi-tops or trainers. The emotions are usually very clear and bold and presented through the artists gestures and facial expressions.