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.