Music video types

In class we were made aware of the different types of music videos.

There are three: narrative, performance and concept

1. Narrative – a storyline e.g. Taylor Swift ‘Love Story’ 

1. Performance – features a band or artist e.g. Green Day 'American Idiot'

1. Concept – generally an idea e.g. Daft Punk 'Around the World'

Narrative music videos often tells a story either that features in the lyrics or is suggested in the lyrics e.g. girl dumps boy. This narrative can be like a Mini film, with a beginning, middle and en, or it can suggest some links to a story. It can also promote a film with clips from the film included telling a story. Because it is only 3-4 minutes it can be very fast paced, lots of shots and cuts, use inter-textuality with films, television and other videos, mimic other film and television genre e.g. horror or sci-fi, sometimes the story can contradict what is seen for effect and sometimes the artist is a part of the story, or an observer or completely separate.

Many music videos include performances of the artists as part of the video. Performance music videos often contain shots of the artists performing. They can be a live stage performance, with shots of artists and audience and can be the artists in “real life” situations e.g. warming up, talking, fooling around. They often include lots of close ups of the artist. There can be a particular visual style that goes with the artist (a motif) e.g. particular clothing, actions, props, type of images. And they often the artist can appear to perform in an unusual place - all lip-synched  e.g. a field, a rooftop.

Concept music videos can be broken into two categories; Thematic and Symbolic. There are lots of common themes in music videos but it depends on the genre of music. E.g. Heavy metal bands go for performance dominated clips, rap has lots of “street” images and dance routines are common for  many female artist performances. Symbolic music videos use lots of symbols to build up meaning e.g.  graveyards convey the meaning of death. There is a lot of use of montage and lots of images to create meaning sometimes often contradictory. Lighting is often used to suggest mood and they can be fast paced - often only a few seconds per shot to build up meanings. Also pictures can be used to support or contradict the lyrics.