The Main 3Different Styles of Music
Videos
#1. Performance Based Video
These are music videos that feature
the artist/band/group performing
the song through most if not all of
the video. It’s probably the easiest
to do on a budget provided you can
get a suitable location for filming. A
good example of this is would be
‘Best of You’ by the Foo Fighters.
The video for this is mostly
performance based with random
video footage presumably licensed
from elsewhere.
2.
Music Video Style:#2
Narrative Based Video
A narrative based music video
contains mostly footage that attempts
to tell a story through the moving
image. Usually involving actors, the
story is sometimes linked to the lyrical
content of the song, but this isn’t
always the case. This type of music
video tends to be popular for a song
that’s featured in a movie and you will
often see scenes cut into the music
video. A good example of this is ‘C U
When U Get There’ by Coolio. A good
narrative based video to check out
would be ‘Always’ by Bon Jovi.
3.
Music Video Style:#3
Concept Based Video
• This is a style of music video
that is based around a single
concept or idea. These types
of videos tend to be fairly
unusual or utilize a particular
editing or filming technique.
It’s not often you get a purely
conceptual music video as the
commercial world demands
things to be a bit more
accessible but a great
example is ‘Monkey
Drummer’ by Aphex Twin.
