Music video genre in detail

1. Genre in Detail
C.J.H ~ Music Videos

2.  Joshua Gunn suggests that genre is inevitable in any
discussion of popular music as fans and artists
negotiate the boundaries of subcultural identity.
 Genre is a messy concept as there’s never a definite
placement for any of the hugely diverse music videos
being made.
 Music videos derive from the song they set, music is
produced before the music video is conceived. Directors
tend to produce the music videos using the song as a
template/guide.
 Pseudo-documentary, art music video, narrative video
and staged performance are developed but not the only
genre of music videos.

3. Pseudo-Documentary
 This genre of music video deploys the aesthetics of
documentary realism to portray the ‘working life’ of the
band or artist. This supposedly legitimates them as
skilled, professional artists.
 This captures the artists in their ‘natural’ environment.
 Techniques typically include: grain, often black and
white film stock and hand held camera communicating
immediacy and authenticity which creates the
documentary effect.
 The result of a pseudo-documentary is that it creates
the illusion that the viewers are experiencing privileged
access to the performers.

4. Art Music Video
 Art video claims legitimacy by appealing to notions of art
and aesthetics.
 This works as an aesthetic complement to the song or
vies with it for artistic consideration.
 They deploy formal and aesthetic techniques associated
with artistic practises.
 Artistic techniques may be produced but doesn’t refrain
from being a promotional video.
 Not featuring (though they can act in it) the band at all
but rather it is way of experiencing light, colour sound
and movement
 The increasing abstraction of the video into formalism
and colour-field experimentation serves to recast the
band’s performance as part of the video’s overall
aesthetic performance.

5. ‘Narrative’
 As methods of cinematography have developed over the years as technology advances, and
thus the expectations of the audience, The originality of the grainy, low budget music videos
to the high-budget mini-films produced by contemporary artists like Beyoncé and Ariana
Grande. With the influence of both director and artist, the genre of the narrative music video
either follows a narrative that: illustrates the lyrics of the song; illustrates part of the lyrical
content whilst also demonstrating the aesthetical qualities of an artist’s performing abilities;
or defies both of these completely and depicts a story that is completely unrelated to the
lyrics of the song in question. With these dynamic approaches to music video composition, it
is difficult to analyse the structure of narrative music videos because of the content within
each video differing greatly from the next. As a result of this, a problem arises in that the
term ‘narrative music video genre’ is being used to categorise a wide range of music videos
that share nothing more in common than the fact that they are all telling a story. Andrew
Goodwin stated that the “…area where the narrative investigation of music video remains
merely embryonic is in the neglect of any attempt to explain the structure of music video
clips. Therefore, a materialist investigation of music television needs to explore the actual
aesthetic, historical, and institutional mechanisms that account for its narrative structure.”
The definition of a ‘narrative music video’ is not a straight forward one. Railton and Watson
state that: “As the name suggests, the narrative video is defined by the fact that it tells a
story. It can do this in a number of ways, but ways which nevertheless activate forms of
visual narration that, on the one hand, variously illustrate, complement or extend the lyrical
content of the song, or, on the other hand, function independently.” This definition by Railton
and Watson suggests that although a narrative music video does in fact tell a story, it does
not necessarily have to tell the story of the song. Narrative music videos can be created in a
number of different ways depending on how true the artist, production team and director of
the music video wish to relate to the song lyrics.

6.  An example of a ‘Narrative’ music video would be by
Stephen and his song “Crossfire”. His lyrics speak of
criticism against societal issues and his video
metaphorically demonstrates the topics he speaks of,
thus complementing the lyrics. This means the video
which accompanies the song is almost entirely
motivated by the desire to illustrate the story of the
song, a story which itself is narrated in a linear
fashion with a clear beginning, middle and end. This
video is one of the few videos that actually fully
conform to the term “narrative”.