1. Assignment 18: Types of
Music Videos
By Liam Howse, Michael Ivan, Liam Cornwall-Tombs and Mykola Serbov
2. Narrative (Illustration): Avenged Sevenfold -
Nightmare (Liam Howse)
The artist/record label chose this type of music video as there is a lot of imagery within the lyrics therefore
making a narrative (illustration) MV is a no brainer. The lyrics have a very clear connection to what is being
showcased in the video making it fit into this genre of MV. For example, the objects/people etc. are what the
main character (lead vocalist) fears (hence why it’s called ‘Nightmare’. He is portrayed as being a resident in a
so called ‘hell’. The lyrics explain his wrongdoings in life and that it’s his own fault he’s ended up here. The MV
features both aspects from Performance and Narrative. The lead vocalist plays the role of the main character
as he can possibly relate to these problems as he was the one that came up with the lyrics.
3. Narrative (Disjuncture): Coldplay – Paradise
(Liam Howse)
The artist/record label chose this type of music video as it’s different to what currently exists and is very
unique. Due to it being unique it stands out and draws in a large viewership. In this case, the video has over
777 million views on YouTube. The MV is completely random in my opinion, but sometimes randomness
allows you to showcase creativity and in this case, Coldplay did. There is a story to it, however the story is
very unsystematic as it doesn’t make sense. The story is about an ‘elephant’ in which escapes from a zoo on
a bike from the police and begins to travel around the world. The lyrics don’t relate to what's happening on
screen, with the exception of the last part where it says “Paradise” and the ‘elephant’ is seemingly happy.
4. Performance OneRepublic - Wherever I Go
(Michael Ivan)
Start of the music video Middle of the music video End of the music video
Throughout the whole music video, there is
only the band performing. There is 0 amount
of narrative and is solely a performance video.
There is not a variety of shots, only long shots
and a few close up shots of the guitar near the
end, this is done to keep the simplicity of the
music video and so that the audience keeps
their attention on the band solely.
The whole music video is shot in this one
room showing all the band members. They
made sure that you can see every single
member and what role they have in the band.
i.e. the drummer.
The room is completely symmetrical and has
the same colour scheme. This is due to the
fact that they want the room to look
aesthetically pleasing for the audience as they
can only see in this room.
The colours are important to note as well as
they are all wearing black, which the
exception of the main singer wearing a white
shirt as well, this is done so that he stands
out from the rest, reinforcing this point, he is
also in the centre of the frame throughout
the whole music video.
In addition, this links to their album cover as
it is all in black and seem to be wearing quite
smart clothing. Therefore they did this to
reflect their album cover and USP as a band.
Album Cover
5. Conceptual (Thematic) MYRATH "BELIEVER"
[warning it bad] (Liam Cornwall-Tombs)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnFtZZp7f-c
For this artist his decisions seem to be based off of his budget and audience, there is also the possibility of
his career stance . So the reason I can see that he would chose this type of music video is because they have
access to a low budget which makes picking thematic easier as it does not take much to create one. also I
think it is early on in this artists career so creating something like this gives him a opportunity to display him,
what his genre is and the quality of his songs. This is also good for the audience because it is labelled as a
heavy metal song having a thematic music video draws there attention.
The artists role is that of a character and performer the reason I can see that they do this is to advertise
themselves to the public and to make them the centre of attention.
6. Panic! At the disco: This is gospel
(Symbolic) (Mykola Serbov)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGE381tbQa8
• In the music video “This is gospel” Brandon who is the lead singer for the group
gets announced dead, dressed up and buried alive. This video is symbolic,
because it questions life and death. The title “this is gospel” or in other words
“this is a religious studying” challenges religion as it didn’t save him. The video
isn't very high budget, however it has high production value. The band has been
around for over 13 years (11 when the video came out), making their career
stance rather stable. The performances in the video is very powerful as it shows
how he got cheated of his life.
