Music Video Codes and Conventions (Arvil Lavigne, Sk8er Boi)

 Avril Lavinge

1. Performance - the singer / band are seen to be playing, 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.
2. Star - use of close-ups, sometimes direct eye contact with audience, to build relationship with audience
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.
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
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
6. Refrain - repeated chorus, sometimes with variations
7. Intertextuality - references to other media, films, performances, events

Avril Lavigne is presented in the music video the whole time. She appears to be the main character in the story and the person everyone wants to be. She is always singing the song in the video which shows the followers that she has real talent which promotes her song even more. She jumps on the cars and everyone is loving her and she is completely the center of attention, she sings with a lot of enthusiasm almost as if it is a real life concert. Towards the end when Avril Lavigne is on the car giving the crowd almost a private concert, she is singing into the camera and staring right at it (in a very close up shot), this is done to build a relationship with the audience and so the audience once again know she is a true superstar. There are also a lot of close ups when her and her friends are skating down stairs, this is showing that she isn't scared to take risks and the viewers love this!

In the music video the visuals are illustrating exactly what the lyrics are saying. It is more or less helping the lyrics create a story in the viewers minds. When she says 'she does ballet' there is a close up of someone's foot while they put ballet pumps on. And when it says 'he was a skater boy' the boy is jumping around on his skateboard to portray that they are stereotypical students in school.

Screens often feature in music videos like when the skater boy is filming Avril while she performs to the crowd while on the car. We see him recording her and then we go into his camera, which is very clever.