Lyric interpretation is the idea of a scene of a music video interprets the lyrics of the song and it portrays what they are saying. When creating a music video, one of the conventions that should be thought about is lyric interpretation. A director will listen to a song, they will then create a video based around what their interpretation of the lyrics are.

Our own interpretation of the lyrics may then be based around the visuals produced as well as our own opinion of the lyrics. A productions interpretation is the idea of the music video having the lyrics directly reflecting on what is happening on the screen. Throughout a song, if a lyric is said, it would usually be acted out on the screen. This is usually done in specific music videos, videos that usually do not have a narrative. This can be effective if the song either lacks deep meaning or is cheerful or doesn’t have a specific set meaning to it. This type of technique often happens in rap, comedy music and some pop videos. For example, Taylor Swifts ‘Blank Space’. The lyrics ‘omg look at his face, you look like my next mistake’ shows a close of the male actor the lyrics is relating to. The entire song is about her falling out of love with a specific person and trying to hurt and break him.

 Extending or consolidating song’s meaning

Extending the meaning of the song through the video is the convention that through the video itself, you can explore some of the subtle meanings behind the song. Consolidating is the idea of making something physically stronger or more solid. This extension/consolidation of the music through the video can be seen in Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer.

Madonna’s ‘Like a prayer’ features imagery of burning crosses and what appears to be a depiction of Jesus, as a black man whom she kissed. Therefore, the overall interpretation could be a statement against racism, as it was intended.  However, a lot of controversy sparked up at the time under the grounds that she was boasting a provocative blend of sex appeal and religion, which people found objectionable.

 Allusion/Links to another artist

Allusion is the idea of a convention that refers to different things. Firstly, it refers to a music video alluding an emotion or feeling in some way through the video. It can be a reference to a person, an existing text, place or event that is made within a music video.

It could be obvious or totally discreet, but either way, many music videos feature conventions such as this. Allusion can occur through the colour grading of the footage. Allusion can allude a person or a historic event, for example in the 2014 song ‘Do they know it’s Christmas time’, alludes to the struggle against Ebola.

Allusion can also be the way that a video is cut in the final edit, to create the allusion that something happened without showing it happen on the screen.

In a different way to allusion, music videos can also make a reference to another artist. This is the idea of that the video could be either paying homage to that artist style or parodying their style from previous videos. 

For example, David Brent’s ‘if you don’t know me by now; Throughout the video Ricky Gervais is featured paying homage to the style of the artist, such as simply red.