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Types and Styles of Music Videos

There are four main types and styles of a music video:

Narrative Based:

A narrative based music video will have a silent film set to the audio of the song which tells a story to the viewers and is often loosely or literally based on the lyrics of the song, forcing the audience to pay attention to the auditory elements of the music video too. The narrative based music video is used to send a message to the audience. Artists may or may not be featured in the music video. However, they never lip-sync to the song. The narrative could be linear, non linear or broken with devices such as flashbacks and visions used to tell the story they're trying to tell.

Good examples of narrative based music videos would be:

Sacrilege- Yeah Yeah Yeahs


The music video shows a non liner narrative of hypocritical Christians who burn, hunt down and kill a girl and her lover (the pastor) for having an affair, reigning judgement down on her while ignoring their own sins.

Sleep On The Floor- The Lumineers


Through an imagined scenario, the music video shows us the age old tale of a man and woman falling in love, leaving their misery and problems behind along with the town they're from, urging the audience to take risks and not miss out on chances to explore love and happiness while they're young.

Victorious- Panic! At The Disco


The music video tells a comical story, in which Brendon Urie gets rewarded for doing the bare minimum like not calling his ex and helping an elderly lady cross the road, in a way telling the audience sometimes small steps is what you need to build yourself up.

Performance Based:

These music videos usually features the artists doing one or more types of performances often in different backdrops, outfits and environments. There are three main performance types that qualify the music video to be considered performance based: singing, dancing and instrumental performance. Recorded or live footage of a band's concert also qualifies a music video as performance based.

Some performance based music videos are:

DNA- BTS


DNA is a colourful music video which is very heavily performance based, using not one but two performance styles: dancing and singing to create a greater meaning in accordance with the lyrics of the song.

Best of You- Foo Fighters


'Best of You' utilises singing and instrumental performances mixed with a few illustrations of painful circumstances humans have gone through. It has very strong impact especially due to the close ups of the mic and the lead singer's mouth as he sings the first few lines in the beginning of the music video

Our Perfect Disease- The Wombats


This performance heavy music video shows the band singing and playing their instruments in what appears to be a doctor's office, complete with X-rays and MRI scans and occasionally through the colour palette and texture of the heart rate monitor in the beginning of the video, which relate to the lyrics of the song.

Conceptual Based:

Conceptual based music videos are usually artistic and abstract. They use symbols and certain imagery to convey what is usually a broad message. Hints of a story may be added to these music videos but no perceptible visual narrative is present, relaying the message through symbolic codes alone.

Apt examples of these would be:

I'm a Mess- Bebe Rexha


'I'm a Mess' is a fairly new music video which relays the concept of rehabilitation and the struggles that come with it such as shame, loss of loved ones etc. Symbolic codes such as the white colours, the straps on her dress all aid to this image.

Bloom- Troye Sivan


This music video is all about love and sexuality through the metaphor of flowers and their blooming. He uses a variety of symbols such as his costumes (the blue head piece and the black skirt with red flowers on it) and the rippling of muscles to further his message to his audience.

HOLLYWOOD- Marina and the Diamonds


This music video uses symbolic codes which would usually be used to represent patriotism ironically, giving them a different meaning. The sequenced jackets that look like the flag, statue of liberty hats, and prom queen/cheerleader dynamics brings forth the meaning of the video and matches the lyrics in showing the sick obsession with American culture.

Standard Pattern:

As the name suggest, most music videos follow this pattern. The standard pattern music video contains all three, a narrative, a concept and a performance. 

Make Me Feel- Janelle Monae



The music video shows the narrative of a wlw couple who go to a gay bar. The concept is sexual freedom and bisexuality while the performance is singing and choreographed dance sequences.

Settle Down- Kimbra



Kimbra's music video for 'Settle Down' uses both dancing and singing as performances while the narrative shows a girl catching her husband's infidelity and trying to hence improve herself for him in order to be enough. Both these elements are set to the concept of young girls being made to internalise wanting to 'settle down' from a young age and its consequences.

Dance, Dance- Fall Out Boy


'Dance, Dance' plays with the concept of 'nice guys finish last'. The narrative follows a guy asking a girl to homecoming, taking her and the subsequent events while the performance is mostly singing and instrumental.

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