Types of Music Videos

Hitchin' A RideThere are three main types of music videos; Performance-based, narrative-based and concept based. However, a lot of music videos have performance-based elements as a huge majority of music videos feature the artist or band (or at least the lead singer) in the music video. And arguably most performance-based videos have elements of concept based videos since the video could relate to the lyrics, therefore, making it themed around a concept.

Performance
Performance-based music videos focus mainly on the actual performance of the musician(s), whether it is singing, dancing or playing their instrument(s). the video will consist of many close up and mid shots on the musicians to capture their performance, hence the name. A good example of this type of music video is "American Idiot" by Green Day, where each three of the band members play the song on their instruments. The video arguably has concept-based elements in it as the song is a critique of America and they have a large backdrop of a green American flag behind them with green goo possibly being a connotation about America.



Narrative

A narrative music video is when there is a story being shown through the video and is usually linked to the concept of the song. There is a clear story being told and directors have to use camera shots and mise-en-scene effectively as they only have a few minutes to get the story across. Many narrative-based videos are like any other story with the beginning, middle, and end.

A good example of this is Green Day's "21 Guns" where a young couple is hiding from the police in the house. The opening shot is of a young man holding a bullet and then dropping it. The story then progresses as it shows police sirens through a mirror and a window using mise-en-scene effectively, soon after the house is shot by police and a phone is showing going off. Meanwhile, the actors look at each other through a broken mirror with close-up shots of them conveying their feelings to the audience.

Concept
Concept videos don't really have a story but will generally have a performance element in it. Concept videos are based on a concept (hence the name) or an idea which the video will show. A good example of this is Green Day's "Hitchin' A Ride" where multiple characters come and go while the band plays the song and walk along on a treadmill as well linking in with the title. It also features a lot of crazy things as the video is about going cold turkey. Mise-en-scene is used as well in these types of videos. Drinks are used in this particular video and vintage 1950s suits, vintage signs, and a large Betty Boop to give the video a 50s feel. It also uses circle closing transitions like in old films and cartoons.

Contemporary
These music videos will usually feature different elements of all of the above videos. They do not have a certain theme or obvious narrative but may usually have artists featuring in it.
The White Stripes' "Fell in Love With a Girl" is a stop motion animation video of the duo playing the song done entirely with Lego bricks.
Paramore's "Still Into You" is the band messing around and doing random stuff with random objects placed everywhere like lots of balloons and riding bicycles indoors.
Sum 41's "The Hell Song" is of the band playing with action figures and other toys as if the toys are the band members.

Lyric Videos 

Lyric videos have become a lot more popular since YouTube became popular but they started way before that. Lyric videos are essentially music videos where the main focus is on the lyrics. They can have just text with static images, kinetic or dynamic typography or even have the lyrics on physical things like in Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" or Panic! at the Disco's "Northern Downpour". They are usually released before the official music video so that the target audience is more likely to listen to the song when it is released. 

 Artists like Bob Dylan and Prince would've wanted the audience to actually focus on the lyrics. Dylan only holds up signs of the most significant words on paper, Prince had his lyrics made extremely large so you had to focus on them, he also included flashing colours to make things stand out and have it more aesthetically pleasing for the viewer.

Letterbomb - Green Day (fan made)

Northern Downpour - P!ATD

Subterranean Homesick Blues - Boby Dylan

Sign o' the Times - Prince

Conventions

Generic Conventions of Music Videos

Common iconography

A lot of music videos share similar qualities and share a lot of iconography. Things such as camera shots, mise en scene, and lighting particularly. All of these things are used in a particular way in music videos

Shots

There will sometimes be close up shots of the instruments and the main artists face. Long shots and establishing shots are typically used in the beginning to show where the location is. Mid shot usually make up most of the video as it focuses on the artists.

Edits
Most editing shots would be continuity cuts as the music videos are quite short so they need to fit a lot in. If it's a narrative based video then shots will often from between the musician(s) and the actors

MES

Instruments, most of the time guitars and drums, especially if it’s a band. Musicians would usually be wearing certain clothing, chosen especially for the music video. Most of the time it either costumes made specifically for the video and clothes chosen out to be worn.

Lighting

Most music videos usually have normal bright lighting to show everything clearly. Dark lighting is used sometimes if it's suitable for a narrative music video or if it fits with the concept. High contrasting lighting may reflect a darker mood.

Pop

Common conventions for pop are bright colours, elaborate costumes. Some of the shots will use a dolly to create professional and cinematic.

• The lighting in pop music videos are either use high key or low key lighting. If low key lighting is used there will typically be bright lights in the background or something to focus on.
• Simple camerawork is used so it doesn't take the focus off of the musician(s). Close ups and tracking shots also
•  

Rap
Rap music videos usually have the main artist rapping, facing the camera. Common features include low angle shots to show they are tough, powerful etc. Close up shots on faces to make the video more dramatic. for example in Straight Outta Compton there is a close of someone with a slow moving shot to make it dramatic.

• Pretty women wearing revealing clothes
• Artists will sometimes wear sunglasses
• High contrast lighting
• Artists are sometimes in their cars to show off their wealth

Functions of Music Videos

Promotion

One of the main functions of a music video is to promote a new a song or a new upcoming artist. Some artists want to reinvent themselves. If an artist has a new song they will usually release a music video to go with. For example, when the song “Bang Bang” was released by Green Day with a lyric music video was released with it, this meant it could be viewed on YouTube so more people had access to it and were more likely to listen to the song later on streaming or download devices.

Money

Music videos also bring in money the artist and production companies as more views on YouTube could bring in a lot of ad revenue. People may also be more inclined to watch the video on YouTube rather than listening to it on streaming services.

Establishing/Re establishing

Sometimes artists want to reinvent themselves in the public’s eye or establish what kind of artist they are through a music video. For example, Miley Cyrus completely changed her image from a young teen girl to woman.

Gaining a fan base/confirming a style

As well as promoting the artist, the music video will confirm the style of the artist. My Chemical Romance’s “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” was stylised to look very emo, appealing to millions of fans who liked that style. Other artists like Katy Perry have their videos very stylised towards their own genre, in her case pop.

Music Video Timeline History

50s/60s 
Artists such as Bob Dylan and The Beatles had videos themselves performing played on TV. these were very basic music videos as it was just them playing.


70s 
In 1975 Queen released the music video for Bohemian Rhapsody. This was very significant at the time as the video cost around £3,500 to produce and was unlike any other video at the time. 
Roll "Its influence cannot be overstated, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air.
The music video was also beneficial for artists like Weird Al Yankovic as he could also parody videos instead of just songs, therefore adding more humour into his work.

80s 
The 80s saw Michael Jacksons' "Thriller" the first ever music video to have a film director directing it and professional choreography. Also, Madonnas' music videos started focusing on performance and coordination as well.
MTV was launched in 1981 making music videos inevitably essential for artists and bands and popularising music videos forever.
However, MTV became very corporate as it banned Queen's "I Want To Break Free". This discouraged artistic freedom from musicians. 


90s
MTV still going strong through the 90s and dominating the music scene, making it harder for new upcoming artists since they would need a music video as well as a song to be distributed. Music videos became more popularised during the 90s with Nirvana's Unplugged album and Green Day's "Basket Case", "Longview" etc. These videos would be played constantly throughout the day when they came out.


2000s 
2005 Was when YouTube was released. Bands and Artists soon realised this was the most suitable place to have their videos as it was accessible to everyone and free to upload anything, and money would come in from ad revenue.
New technology gave people extreme freedom and new techniques that could be used to make music videos more interesting and impressive. For example, The White Stripes' music videos use green screen techniques and editing to their advantage creating meticulous videos.
YouTube and the internet also meant music videos could reach a mass audience on an incredibly large scale, such as Gangnam Style which has had over two billion views.