An explanation of the different types of music videos

1. Types of Music Videos
Izzy Dennis

2. Performance
• Performance based videos show only the
band/artist performing the song.
• It is the cheapest and easiest type of video to
make, providing you can find a suitable location.
• A large variety of shots need to be used in quick
succession in order to keep the video interesting,
as there is a risk it could look boring with only
performance.
• Performance music videos can be for artists that
are fairly new to the industry and can be a way for
the artist to gain popularity.

3. Narrative
• Narrative based music videos contains
mostly footage that shows a storyline that
runs throughout, or sometimes several
storylines running parallel to each other.
• Sometimes with actors and sometimes with
the artist themselves, the story will either link
to the lyrics of the song, or just the overall
theme.
• If a song has been featured in a movie, the
music video will often show clips of film
footage cut into the music video.

4. Conceptual
• Conceptual videos are based around a single
concept or idea.
• This type of video is fairly unusual and are a
lot harder to film, mostly being done with
editing and Special FX, and would therefore
be not only harder to do, but also more
expensive.
• These types of videos also aren’t very
popular as they are not very easy to relate to,
so very few videos are purely conceptual.