The document discusses three main music video genres: narrative, concept, and performance. Narrative videos tell a story that usually revolves around relationships. Concept videos feature abstract themes and visuals based around a single idea. Performance videos focus on simply showing the artist performing the song. Each genre has advantages like engaging audiences or being creative, and disadvantages like sometimes being too obscure or predictable.

1. The 3 Music
Video Genres:
- Narrative
- Concept
- Performance
By Beth Hall

2. Narrative
– Narrative music videos revolve around a story being told throughout the
entirety of the video.
– Most Narrative music videos usually explore relationships.
– The narratives are also very Todorovian.
– According to Carol Vernallis’ theory, the story will often be resolved but this,
however, is not always the case.
– Artists create narrative driven music videos because it appeals to
mainstreamers (according to Young and Rubican’s Four C’s) and a younger
target audience.

3. Example of a Narrative music
video;
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx96Twg-Aew
– This music videos shows a story about a man attempting to gain a woman’s
attention in a diner/cafe, a simple and compelling narrative that holds the
audience’s attention throughout the entirety of the video.
– Like many narrative music videos the story is based on the dynamics of
relationships. I believe narrative music videos use this typical story line heavily
based on relationships because it is a universal theme. This means that many
audiences will relate and understand the storyline and therefore enjoy. Hence the
video will become successful.
– This is a very Todorovian approach to narrative and it heavily bases the creation of
music videos on the assumption that their audience will be ‘mainstreamers’,
according to Young and Rubicam’s 4 Cs and therefore enjoy simple and easily solved
narratives.

4. Concept
– Concept music videos often include abstract themes and visuals
– They are compelling, innovative and creative.
– This genre of music videos are usually based around a single idea or ‘concept’ and
are normally obscure or unusual. This unusualness is an attraction to many
audiences and it draws them in to watch the video.
– A successful concept music video should keep the audience entertained and even
sometimes confused throughout the videos entirety. It should hold their attention
constantly.
– It is not unusual for concept videos to go viral on the internet because of their
unusualness. An example of this is OKGo’s – ‘Here it goes again’ which has over 32
million views on YouTube.

5. Example of a Concept music
video;
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY
– This music video is based on presenting images using everyday objects, focussing on
a bed, and the stop motion film technique which creates pictures that makes the
audience think about what they are seeing.
– It is a really interesting video to watch and keeps the audience engaged, which is the
main selling point of concept videos and the reason for their huge success among
many different audiences.
– This video has over 30 million views on YouTube showing again how concept videos
regularly go internet viral because of their compelling visuals.
– Arguably, each concept music video has a unique selling point and this videos
unique selling point is the use of stop motion film work which is rarely seen in
popular music videos.

6. Performance
– Performance music videos are about the actual performance of a song which the
band/artist play live for the video or lip sync to a pre-recorded track.
– This type of video focuses on the band or artist and the audience’s attention is all on
them rather than being on interesting visuals.
– Bands that are quirky or interesting often use this genre of music video to promote
that quirkiness and showcase it as a unique selling point to the audience. It is also a
way of them showing their appearance and promoting themselves.
– It is common for punk, alternative and rock artists to use mainly performance in
their music videos.
– Performance videos leave a lot of room for becoming hybrids. So more often than
not a band or artist will create a performance-narrative hybrid or performance-
concept hybrid because they are generally more interesting for audiences.
– Although performance is a music video genre itself, many bands or artist choose to
include short clips of them performing into other music video types.

7. Example of a Performance music
video;
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCMOJ64tYNk
– This is a very typical example of a performance music video as the entirety is
compiled of clips of the band performing.
– It uses attention-grabbing lighting, camera movements and fast paced editing to
draw the audience’s notice and to make it more interesting than it would be
without all these techniques being used.
– This is punk/rock band which shows how a common convention of performance
music videos is that these genre of artists tend to use the genre more for their
videos.

8. Advantages of each genre;
Concept Performance Narrative
Creative Promotes the band/artist
and their look
Satisfies audiences
Engages audiences Focuses more on the music
and lyrics rather than visuals.
Keeps audiences watching as
they want to see the
conclusion
Are visually appealing and
draws attention of all
audiences
Allows for genre hybrids and
therefore more creativity
Story often coincides with
lyrics (Andrew Goodwin) and
therefore emphasises them
Can often go viral because of
their unusualness

9. Disadvantages of each genre;
Concept Performance Narrative
Many audiences often do not
‘understand’ their purpose
Often they can’t have just
images of the band
performing alone as it
disengages audiences.
Are often Todorovian and
predictable
Sometimes can become too
obscure
Have to have hybrids of this
genre because of the simple-
ness of the genre on its own.
Follow similar universal
themes (relationships and
love)
Can be expensive to create
because they are so abstract
Often leave enigma codes
unanswered because of the
short time allotted to telling
a story