Types of music videos

1. Types of music videos
By Will Brooks

2. Narrative music videos
• A narrative based music video is one that consists mainly of a story line which will
relate to the lyrics and genre of the song that’s being played over it.
• This type of music video is often used in songs that are part of the film i.e. ones
that have been featured or are part of the soundtrack for a particular film.
• There are three types of narrative music videos: Illustration, Amplification and
Disjuncture.
• An example of this would be Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Imagine Dragons – Sucker for
Pain. This music video includes clips from the film as well as the official music
video.

3. Concept music videos
• Concept music videos do not usually have a storyline to go with the lyrics
or content of the song. This can be about leaving the audience to decide
what theme the music video has and what it is trying to portray. It is
normally remembered more so than narrative music videos, as it is unusual
and has a concept that can be remembered for its uniqueness and
creativity.
• One disadvantage of this type of music video would be that they can be
quite hard to understand what the artist is trying to portray, therefore
leaving them confused with what to make of that music video.
• One example of a concept music video would be Gotye’s Somebody I used
to know. This has no narrative to it and is an unusual, yet creative way to
exploit the song lyrics.

4. Performance music videos
• Performance music videos often focus on the artist and their performance.
This is often portrayed in the rock genre, as the band are essentially
performing their song as if it were to an audience. These types of videos
are often cheaper to create as no setting is required to stage their new
song. The band only need a suitable place for recording, a live gig for
example. This can be tempting for an audience to see them perform live as
they get to see what they could be like performing to a live audience – a
good marketing technique. Despite this, they are often quite boring to
watch, due to the fact that there has been no creativity involved when it
comes to making the music video for that group.
• An example of this would be Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a prayer. This music video
shows the performance they did in a concert close to the release of the
song they are singing.