Monday, 13 February 2012

Music Video Genres

There are six main genres for music videos they are,Performance, Narrative, Promotional, Spectacle, Image and Personal.

A Performance based music video consists of the band or artist lip syncing to the song. The main shots that are used in a performance music video are close up shots, It is mainly focused on the singer and in instrumental sections it is focused on the band but the camera doesn't really move that much. Special are used to show the meaning of the song and the bands image.
An Example of a Performance video is - Coldplay Viva La Vida



A Narrative based music video tells the story of the song. In these music videos there is a bit of lip syncing from the artist. These music videos use medium and long shots to show the story, withing the frame of the shot it is not just the artist like in a performance based video, there is also hardly any editing because it is telling a story. For example- Taylor Swift - Back To December


A Promotional music video has clips of the film as well as the singer, there is a bit of lip syncing from the artist aswell. It is usually set close to where the film is set. The costumes may be similar to the artist aswell but still show the artists own style. An example of a Promotional music video is - Goo Goo Dolls - Iris 



A Spectacle music video consists of no plot and no narrative, it also uses quick cuts and no conitinuity between the clips, split screens are also sometimes used. Most spectacle music videos don't make much sense as there is no story or relative meaning to the song. An example of a spectacle music video would be - Lady Gaga- Poker face.


A Image music video show the band or artists image by having different clothes to represent what the band or artist is like. Within image videos there are a lot of clean cuts between each clip/scene with a range of shots such as close ups, and long shots to show a band together which would give personality to the video. An Example of this would be - One Direction -  What makes you beautiful.


A Personal music video usually consists of the band or artist lip syncing the song and showing personal aspects of their life which relate to the song. They were their style of clothing and uses a various range of shots, a lot of close ups are used to focus in on something, which helps to make the song and video more personal. An example of this would be - Jonny Cash Hurt.

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