Types of Music Video Research - Kieran Panchal 9652

Narrative Based 

Narrative - The way that a story or structure is told in a way that it makes sense to the audience. It has also been defined as the way events are unified in time and space.
In terms of music video productions, this is when a music video is very plot-driven, using narrative and story telling to create an engagement with the audience, as they are more thematic in their approach. Usually, the narrative used relates to the lyrics or genre of the song, which further enhances the experiences for the audience. It should also be noted that music videos often don't contain complete narratives and often resist ones that are completely realistic and classic, containing a beginning, middle and end.

Narrative in music video often work similarly to film in that they follow Toderov's equilibrium structure, beginning with an exposition that introduces a character, followed by a disequilibrium and finally a denouement where the conflict/disequilibrium is resolved.


Types of narrative music videos:

• Illustration - this is where the narrative in the music video very closely reflects the lyrical content of the song
• Amplification - The narrative may be slightly influenced by the lyrical content, however, it uses different themes to compliment the emotion and feeling of the song.
• Disjuncture - This is where the narrative holds very little relationship to the song, and often can be very arbitrary.

Performance Based 

Performance based music videos usually include the artist of a song, and are based around watching the artist perform to the song to the camera/audience. This style of music video is very common amongst high energy, particularly rock music, as it allows the energy and atmosphere from the performance to be transferred to the audience, creating a more intense and immersive viewing experience, which can emulate the audience seeing the artist play live. The costing on this type of production is also most likely to be the lowest whilst the producers are giving the audience the most realistic image of the band as it is only the band they are showing. The downside of this is that the band will need to be relatively established to pull off the video, or else interest may become saturated unless there is some form of narrative or concept also shown in the video, creating a hybrid music video category.





Concept

Concept music videos are usually based around a single idea or or concept. Often they have little narrative relevance, and are very niché and art-based, involving unusual content in order to create a sense of surrealism or escapism for the audience. This type of music video can be used for any music genre, however it is most commonly associated with less conventional/popular music, particularly songs with ambient and experimental elements. The unusual theme of the video content usually attracts an audience and is engaging due its niche aesthetic.