The types of music videos; performance, concept and narrative.

1. D A N I E L L E F L E T C H E R
TYPES OF MUSIC VIDEO

2. CONCEPT BASED VIDEO
• This is where the video is based on a single concept or idea. This
music video are usually unusual and contain a particular filming
or editing technique, therefore they are quite uncommon.
• ‘Style’ is an example of a Taylor Swift concept based music video.
Writer Daniel Kreps intended for the ‘Style’ music video to be
something different to her previous videos, and displaying “a
darker, more abstract” version of Taylor. Jessica Derschowitz
claims that ‘Style’ is a ”major departure from the more playful
videos for her earlier 1989 singles”. The video begins with a
silhouette of Taylor’s head containing a scene in which her
boyfriend is standing in a seashore. The entire video is filled with
unusual, creative shots which have been edited effectively.
When the man holds up a mirror, it is Taylors lips that are displayed
in the mirror rather than his own reflection. There’s generally just
really unusual merging on scene and it looks so different and
unique.

3. ‘STYLE’

4. CONVENTIONS OF CONCEPT
• It can literally be anything.
• It often includes unusual elements to the video.

5. NARRATIVE BASED VIDEO
• This music video is based on telling a story and is one of the
most common music video's to date.
• If the music is for a specific film, e.g. Ellie Goulding's Love Me
like You Do is for the film 50 Shades of Grey, and the music
video contains clips from the film.
• Love Story is a perfect example of one of Taylor Swifts
narrative based music videos. It begins with the couple
meeting in school, and then a flashback to the pair dancing
at a fancy ball. He later on proposes to her after gaining her
fathers permission. The visual video does in fact match the
lyrics to the song. ‘See you make your way through the crowd
and say “hello”’ – this is the moment in which the couple meet
at the fancy ball, therefore displaying how the narrative is
based on the song lyrics itself.

6. ‘LOVE STORY’
https://www.
youtube.com
/watch?v=8x
g3vE8Ie_E

7. CONVENTIONS OF NARRATIVE
• Sometimes he artist is apart of the story.
• Can mimic other film and TV genres.
• Use intertextuality (so perhaps it refers to other
videos, film or TV)
• Is fast paced, therefore includes lots of shot types
and cuts
• It is only 3-4 minutes, meaning the story is
compressed into a short amount of time.

8. PERFORMANCE BASED VIDEO
• A performance based video simply involves the artist, band or
group performing the song throughout the entirety of the
video. One of my favourite performance based videos is
definitely James Bay – Hold Back the River. Its such a simple
but effective video. As the song begins, there’s low key
lighting in which sets the tone. When the songs begins to pick
up in pace, the lighting is brighter. Having just an artist singing
and playing his guitar really engages the audience into every
single word they sing. Love!
• Of Course, as Taylor Swift is my inspiration for my music video, I
had to look at her performance based videos. One that
stands out in my mind is ‘Red’ which was filmed at one of her
concerts. However, the camera does not remain still as she
sings, there are cuts to other scenes of her entire concert. This
type of video makes audience feel as if they’re at the concert
along with the artist. Or it gets audiences excited to go to one
of their concerts.

9. ‘HOLD BACK THE RIVER’ AND ‘RED’
https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=Zlot0i3Zykw
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=mqiH0ZSkM9I

10. CONVENTIONS FOR A PERFORMANCE
• Obviously contains a performance; this could be
the artist themselves
• Includes close up shots of the artist
• The performer is lip syncing and the audio is
matched through the editting
• It can be a live performance, including shots of the
performer a long with their band or audience.

11. HYBRID BASED VIDEO
• A hybrid based video basically includes two or more of
the following: concept, narrative and performance.
Taylor Swift uses a hybrid of concept and performance
for her music video for ‘Shake it Off’. The main message
or idea for the video was that everyone is different and
should be able to do what they want without being
judged for being awful at it. You should do what you
enjoy no matter what. Hence why there were many
different dance styles in each scene, all including Taylor
herself would could not dance as well as the others. But
this of course did not matter because she’s evidently
enjoying herself.
• I feel like including the performance just breaks up the
video. It also displays Taylor herself expressing the
messages through the lyrics of ‘Haters gonna hate hate
hate hate hate, baby I’m just gonna shake shake shake
shake shake, I shake it off’.

12. ‘SHAKE IT OFF’
https://ww
w.youtube
.com/wat
ch?v=nfWl
ot6h_JM

13. BIBLOGRAPHY
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style_(Taylor_Swift_song)#Music_video –
Quotes by Daniel Kreps and Jessica Derschowitz commenting on
Taylor Swift’s Style video.