Music Video Analysis: Music Video Types

Music videos typically can be classed into 3 different types of music videos, narrative, performance and concept. In some cases however the music video can be a hybrid; a mixture of two or more genres

Narrative:  

Narrative lends itself to almost all genre types of music when making a music video. Usually derived straight from the lyrics of the song it tells a story in broken or significant sections of the song. An Example of this type could be Ashanti-Lost Without You The general techniques when editing are fades and cuts between the scenes, while the camera practices commonly vary between close-ups of the artists face and establishing shots of an area during the story.

Performance:

A performance based music video is exactly as the title states. It is a performance, the artists or group performing together in a location, studio and in some cases on stage. Again much like the narrative can lend itself to almost all genres however some are an exception. A prime example is Beyoncé - Single Ladies The editing techniques are generally cuts and are also limited. The camera shots also are limited between close-ups and longshots for individual artists and longshots and in some cases establishing shots for groups or bands.

Concept:

Concept is an idea that is conveyed throughout the entire running length of the music video. They are less commonly used for music videos as the song genre generally tends to be dance, electronica, drum and base Daft Punk – Around the World for example. The songs and tracks that generally have not many lyrics thus the concepts generally comes from few words yet in all cases there can be exceptions. As it is a concept/idea the camera and editing techniques unlike the other two types are limited only by the idea it is based upon leaving it open for a varying types.

Hybrid:

Hybrid videos are becoming more and more common as a video type. It is a mixture of two or more genres and video types thus can be used to illustrate that exactly. More commonly hybrids tend to be performance and narrative based with both elements of switching between the narrative and performance or integrating it together much like in J Cole – The Lost Ones. When using the hybrid the camera and editing techniques of both thus lend themselves to the music video allow more possibilities with the music video.