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A music video is a short-moving image/film that is used to accompany a pre-existing music track in order to encourage the sales of music in another format and promote/represent an artist and their new single/album. Some artists choose to release a music video purely for creative purposes but the majority of music videos nowadays, especially within the mainstream category are used as a form of promotion when it comes to promoting the sales of the artist and increasing their popularity; it can also lead to an increase in merchandise especially via online music sensations such as Youtube which allows eople to access songs and music videos whenever they want.

 

Andrew Goodwin 1992- 'A music video is not primarily a commodity form but a promotional one'.

 

 

 

What is a music video and What are the different types?- 11th September 2014

 

Firth devised the theory that music videos can be characterised by 3 broad typologies:

  • Performance

  • Narrative

  • Conceptual

These types describe the form and content selected by the director or artist to attract viewers and to convey a direct or indirect message. They can act as extended advertisements, as popular art forms or as self-referential filmic texts.

 

1) PERFORMANCE

Performance based videos are music videos that feature a star or group singing in concert to enthusiastic fans; the main goal to convey in a performance based video is the sense that the viewer is experiencing a real live concert from the artist.

Performance based videos mainly feature the band or artist performing either to the camera or an audience (concert) and give them a chance to put a pure emphasis on their song and talent. This type of music video is mainly popular amongst rock bands/artists as their concerts have a lot of energy and represent their true identities and genre. Event though the two music videos below are completely different regarding the artist, genre and song they both hold the title of being a performance video as the emphasis is on their perfomance of the song and their raw talent rather than any other storyline/plot. It could be said that performance videos are a lot easier to shoot as it's easier for a whole group of people to be filmed at once and also showcases their genuine talent if they can actually play an instrument.  The rawness of the footage also helps connote that the band/artist would rather play music to its fans than worry about how they were being marketed or having the most perfectly edited music video; this reinforces their persona and helps them stay away from a manufactured image of a lot of pop stars. 

 

Peformance based music videos tend to attract marginal subgenres:

  • Rock

  • Indie

  • Alternative

 

Gow 1992- "The predominance of performance indicates that music video defines itself chiefly by images of artists singing and playing songs".

 

 

2) NARRATIVE VIDEOS

Narrative videos are videos that presents a sequence of events or a storyline/plot that refelcts upon the lyrics and can tell a story in a linear or cause-effect sequencing. This type of music video is effective in engaging the audience and is often used in music videos that are being used in films or in pop videos/mainstream; the image/story on screen is a reflection of the lyrics being sung.

The most common narrative video which is primarily popular with female pop artists such as Taylor Swift and Katy Perry involves telling a love story where boy meets girl, loses girl for some reason and the end is resolved by the boy getting the girl back. Artists can either feature in the story of the video themselves as the main character which they most often choose to do in order to identify with their audience or can also choose to hire actors/actresses to play the roles of the boy and girl or any characters that they've chosen to use. 

 

"Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for somthing to happen"- Schwichtenberg 1992

3) CONCEPTUAL VIDEOS

"Conceptual videos don't tell the story in linear fashion, but create a mood feeling to be evoked in the experience of viewing"- Firth 1988

 

Conceptual videos are usually based around a single idea or concept but are obscure an unusual leaving the audience to think what did I just watch? Conceptual videos contain the possibility for multiple meanings as it's open to interpretation by the audience as they don't have any clear or specific storyline; the main attraction of conceptual videos for most consumers is the unusual content it includes which should keep the audience entertained and on tender hooks as to what is going to happen. Conceptual videos aren't just used by just one genre but are in fact used by all genres which includes different kinds of music and forms of artists and the video tends to not reflect upon the lyrics or song in any way which adds to the unusual factor. Conceptual videos sometimes are combined with another form of music video such as performance to create a full video.

 

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