Country Music Genre Conventions

Most country songs have a simple melody with a deep meaning or a social message. The lyrics usually have a storyline running through the song. Music videos therefore, in the country genre should enhance or reinforce the storyline in order to bring it to life visually. Commonly country music videos follow a narrative in order to portray the story line empirically.


The country music artist is expected to feature in the music video and is commonly cast as the main character. Most country singers write their own material and there songs are inspired by real life experiences. Therefore, it is necessary for them to feature in the music video to help the audience relate to them.


Many people stereotypically associate the country genre with trucks, the country side, cowboy boots etc, with country music so conventionally there has to be some sort of natural element to the video.

If the music video beaks away from the narrative this usually reflects the idea that the song has no particularly story line. In trade for the narrative approach, video directors may use concept videos or montages. In this case the video mainly focuses on the artist with a variety of other commonly, country artists have music gigs and synchronized live performances in the music. For example; Footloose by Blake Shelton takes place at a cinema where Blake Shelton Simply stands on the back of his truck performing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mzpuUzLKx4

In country music videos, most of the camera shots tend to be medium shots as this allows the audience to see the performance of the artist. This allows the audience to view the emotion behind the song as the artist performs. Long shots are also used to establish the area and style of the place so the audience gets an idea of the iconography of the band/artist. Close ups are also commonly used to show the audience that the artist can actually sing and perform, also sometimes if there is a narrative the close ups show the emotions felt by the artist.

The mise en scene usually found in country would be very natural ambient lighting and some very bright. The girls usually wear dresses, not jeans. The boys in the music videos are either really casual or really smart depending on the direction the video is going in. With the country genre there is normally a narrative within the video, so props aren't often used but can be if the music video mainly focuses on the performance, rather than the narrative.