RESEARCH: THIRTY FRAMES PER SECOND: THE VISIONARY ART OF THE MUSIC VIDEO By Steven Reiss and Neil Feinman (Harry N. Abrams, New York, 2000)

The music video has to be densely textured so that it can hold up over repeated viewings. It has to be edgy enough to be noticed, but palatable enough to satisfy the often divergent demands of the performer, the record company and the public ( A.K.A the lowest common denominator).

A plot-driven narrative usually gets boring...knowing that their music videos are meant to be seen repeatedly, most video directors prefer a denser, more abstract style to telling a simple story.

For Jim Farber ( 'The 100 Top Music Videos', Rolling stone October 14 1993), 'Video directors reprove what good film directors knew all along-that visuals can also be music. When executed with elan, an edit becomes a back-beat, a crane shot a solo, a close-up a hook.'

Thirty Frames Per Second: The Visionary art of the music video is a lavishly produced paean to music video that is half overheated cultural defence and half resume book of the medium's most celebrated practitioners.

RESEARCH: HEIDI PEETERS

Heidi Peeters' view that narrative in music video is much more about building the emotional environment surrounding the band or star and thereby making connections with the audience than about plot or interpreting lyrics. For Peeters, this ability to connect the band to the audience is the KEY GENRE CONVENTION: 'One would be surprised at how the majority of theorists still consider music videos to be visualizations of a song. While they may seem discontinuous .., the shots (in music videos)are highly connected through the image of the star.” 

“The star promotes the phenomenon of identification, a process by which viewers become attached to a star, ranging from emotional affinity limited to the context of the movie theatre to projection, by which fans try to become their idols through imitating speech, movements and consumer patterns.'

RESEARCH: Music video 'If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next' by the Manic Street Performers.

Being an alternative rock band, alternative bands often show similar characteristics and conventions. These people mysterious and often have political themed songs and visuals. ‘If you tolerate this your children will be next’ is clearly very political as within the title itself it holds a message. This is demonstrated visually through the images of the faceless people, supposedly being neglected by the government.  The drum kit is coated in plastic, and across the metal wall is a group of faceless people, restrained. The Blood used also makes a visually striking appearance allowing viewers to see that violence and possibly even death occurs. The lyrics used in this song such as the word fascists shows that political messages are being told in this song.

Furthermore Political themes emerge through hints of violence and faceless characters - a similar music video would be by another alternative rock band, Muse's Plug In Baby, which features women with entire body parts missing as opposed to faces showing abuse. Faceless characters are also used to shock audiences for example they are often used in horror films etc. This music video hints that the faceless children are victims due to their age and innocence and huge physical disorder.

The manic street preachers opposes Theodor Adorno theory that music is used to promote capitalism and conform to governments. Like most alternative-rock band music videos the majority of the shots are of the band performing in an unusual location.  This is to create mystery and a sense of unfamiliarity and emphasise the alternativeness of the band. Another example where this is used in another alternative band is fall out boy, where monkeys are used as the band members. This could be seen to be part of the genre of a music video (band performance). Andrew Goodwin believes that music videos are not at all original art forms, but like films and television programs, follow a list of codes and conventions.