Common motifs seen in music videos include the fragmentation of the body through close-up shots, the use of mythical and mysterious settings like candy land in Katy Perry's "California Girls" video, and the portrayal of horror through excessive violence as seen in Papa Roach's "Kick in the Teeth". Ritual celebration is also a frequent motif shown through parties and gatherings, as in Deaf Havana's "Friends Like These". Impossible sequences employing effects like slow motion are another common motif used to achieve trippy or surrealistic effects.

2. Common motifs in music videos
Fragmentation of the body this is where the camera goes in for close up of the focus of
the camera i.e. eyes, mouth, breast. It can also be when the body is obscured by objects
i.e. when someone is walking and their feet are obscured.
In this video Defiler “Cryomancer”
we see fragmentation of the body
when the camera zooms in for a
close up of his face when the vocalist
shouts.

3. Mythical and mysterious
A popular motif featured in a lot of music videos is mythical and mysterious with spans a
wide range of things anything that is considered out of this world, common examples of
this would be the video being set in gothic mansion, post apocalyptic worlds or make
believe places.
The example we have
chosen for this is Katy Perry's
video for California girls
which is set in a make
believe place i.e. candy land.

4. Horror
Another common motif which is commonly used is horror, as it is with
mythical and mysterious this motif can be expanded out into many areas
it can be seen as the use of extreme violence, depictions of
hell, war, Satan or monsters
In the video example we found Papa
Roach’s “Kick in the teeth” we see the use
of excessive violence and of gore as Jacoby
Shanddix is punched and then beaten up.

5. Intertextuality
Intertextuality is a commonly used motif in music video it can be seen in many ways but it
basically shows that the artist knows they are in a music video it can be done by shoming
shots including cameras, sets or directions it can also be done by the artist looking
themselves in the mirror.
In the example music video Nelly’s “Hot in
herre” we see this when the shot is of the
display on a video camera videoing Nelly
rapping.

6. Ritual celebration
Ritual celebration is an often seen motif in music videos is ritual celebrationit can
involve parties, religious celebration singing any kind of upbeat event. It is most
commonly used in rock video’s often on beaches or at concerts.
In the example video we have chosen
Deaf Havana’s “Friends like these” we
see several examples of this one is a
party at a gig another is people
partying on the beach.

7. Impossible sequences
Impossible sequences are often used in music videos as a motif mainly when the
artist wants to use an acid trip or drug use effect but can be used to create other
effects it involves the use of slow/fast motion, special effects and animation.
In the example video we have chose
we see several versions of the
motif, we see slow and fast motion as
well as special effects in the form of
motion blurring.

8. Other features in music video’s
There are many other features commonly used in music videos things such as;
•Camera shots into bright lights into sun or fire
•Breaks in the narrative for the artist to sing
•Clips from the film the song is featured
•Cross cutting from narrative to concert footage
This is an example of breaks in the narrative for the artist to
sing form Eminem’s video “Stan” it cuts from Stan driving his
car off a bridge to Eminem on his tour bus rapping along to
the song.