There are three main categories of music videos: performance-based, narrative-based, and concept-based. Performance-based videos simply show the artist performing the song, connecting the audience to the artist and lyrics. Narrative-based videos tell a story that relates to the song's lyrics, making the video more engaging for audiences. The example given is the music video for "Take On Me" by a-ha, which uses a romantic fantasy narrative and pencil drawings to illustrate the song.

1. Categories of
Music Videos
By Jumana Ismail

2. Three main categories:
When producing music videos, it is important to know
that there are three different categories in which
music videos fit in to and some may vary depending
on the genre of the song. Each of the three
categories are significant in music videos and are
used for a vital purpose.
The three main categories are:
 Performance based videos
Narrative based videos
Concept based

3. Performance based videos
Performance based videos are typical within many music videos, in which the artist simply performs
their song in a studio or at a concert, portraying the fact that they are the ones singing the song.
Performance based songs may impact the audience massively as they may focus more on the lyrics of
the song rather than the actual music video. In addition, this may connect the audience to the artist
more, as they are watching the artist singing the actual lyrics and therefore the artist may be implying
that the lyrics are directly coming from the artist within. Performance based videos are popular
within the Indie Folk genre as the artist would rather be more intimate with the lyrics in order to
captivate the audience with meaning behind the song. Additionally, performance based videos tend
to be used a lot with rock bands, because rock bands tend to perform at really energetic and lively
concerts , in which their demographic would be more interested in watching the concert in addition
to listening to their songs.
Examples of performance based videos:
 30 seconds to Mars- ‘Closer to the Edge’
 Beyonce – ‘Listen’
 Daughter- ‘Youth’
 Green day – ‘American Idiot’
 Saving Aimee – ‘Fresh since’88’
The song ‘Youth’ by Daughter is the song that
me and my group decided to produce a music
video to. We thought that it would be good
idea to create a music video to it due to the
fact that it is a performance based video and
by doing so, we will have an original idea
added towards it. The audience may also be
excited and attracted to watch out music
video as they may be enticed to know if their
imagination of the lyrics was similar or not.

4. Example of a performance based
music video
Green day – ‘American Idiot’
Green day is an American rock band that have a
performance based music video based on their song,
‘American Idiot’. The whole video is performance based in
which their a various amount of camera shots that
illustrate the band performing the song and one of the
band members (Billie Joe) singing directly into the camera.
By doing this, the audience pay more attention to the
actual band and enabling the audience to feel part of the
performance and more attached. Furthermore, this song
is very political, indirectly informing their audience about
disorder and chaos that occurs in America today , so by
making this song a performance based video, they are
implying to their audience that this is directly how they
feel. They may believe that they do not need an ‘acted out’
narrative to portray the meaning behind the song as they
strongly believe in what they are singing.

5. Narrative based videos
Narrative based videos consist of music videos with a story line throughout that mainly
relates to the lyrics of the song and its genre. By adding a story line to a music video, it
enables the audience to become more hooked and interested to watch the music video.
Narrative based music videos tend to rely on the visuals and the imagery in order to
produce a captivating story for the audience to follow. A narrative based music video may
be performed by the actual artists who sing the song, or from other actors/dancers that
perform in the music video. In addition, a narrative added in a music video will allow the
audience to be able to interact with the video and include their thoughts in how they
imagined the video to be. Narrative based music videos also boost the viewers experience
when watching the video as it allows them to see the artists visual illustration of what they
thought the lyrics meant.
Furthermore, it is very common for many narrative based music videos to use part of the
film that the song has been featured in. For example, this is present in the song ‘Decode’
by Paramore that have been taken from the movie Twilight.
Examples of Narrative based music videos:
 Bruno Mars- ‘Grenade’
 Jay z ft Kanye West ‘ No church in Wild’

6. Example of a Narrative based music
video
An example of a music video that is a narrative based music
video would be ‘Take on Me’ by A-ha. The music video has
a theme of a romantic fantasy narrative in which the story
line consists of a tableau of pencil drawings in a comic book
that represents competitive motorcycle sidecar racing. The
story in the comic book portrays the hero pursued by two
enemies. Subsequently , with the use of editing techniques
, the scene cuts to a woman sitting in a cafe drinking coffee.
After asking the waitress for her bill, the comic hero winks
at the girl from the comic book and reaches out his pencil
drawn hand to invite the woman into the comic book. As
her pencil form self goes into the comic book, the hero
sings to the woman as he introduces her to his own
animated world. Eventually and throughout the music
video, the hero flashes between the real life version of
himself and the animated one.
Although this is mainly narrative based, there are scenes in
the music video where the artist is lip syncing into the
camera, and therefore this adds a slight performance to the
music video.