The 3 main categories of music videos

Ella Oldroyd, 13N.

PERFORMANCE BASED MUSIC VIDEOS

A performance based video is where the artist is shown performing their song themselves. Either at a gig or in the studio or just for the purpose of the music video. As it’s the artist performing themselves there is going to be lots of close ups of them where a visual style can be stuck to the artist. Also, this gives the chance to film in a completely different location such as a field, a school or a church where lip sync will be used.

Examples of this type are Take That’s ‘Eight Letters’ which is a montage of footage from their tour ‘Progress Live.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYX0OrB3JLg

Taylor Swift also did a performance based video for her video of the single ‘Red.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlot0i3Zykw

NARRATIVE BASED MUSIC VIDEOS

These type of music videos have a storyline to them, which is continued throughout. However, with the music video only being 3-4 minutes long, there will be a lot of very fast paced shots found within the video. Also in narrative videos, intertexual factors can be found. Such as references to other films, TV programmes and music videos.

An example of this type are: A-ha’s ‘Take on Me’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

Also Jay Z x Kanye West’s ‘No Church in Wild’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJt7gNi3Nr4

CONCEPT BASED MUSIC VIDEOS

A concept base music video is often based around just one idea that is different and unusual. With the concept being strange, there isn’t usually a link between the lyrics and the visuals on screen but might have a very slight connection. This type of music video is quite rare compared to the other two.

An example of a concept based music video is Arctic Monkey’s ‘Do I Wonna Know?’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpOSxM0rNPM