Categories of Music Videos.

Types of Music Videos:

• Performance based
• Narrative based
• Concept based

Performance based Music Videos: 

These types of music videos tend to show the artist/band performing throughout the music video, sometimes they may even play through the whole song.

Last Night - The Vamps 

An example of a performance based music video is Last Night by The Vamps. In this music video the band are playing their instruments throughout most of the music video. This is very typical of The Vamps as all of their other music video also show them playing their instruments at some point in the music video. By being a performance based video this gives the music video a feel of high energy, the fast editing and range of camera shots also add to this feeling of energy.  

Narrative based Music Videos:

Narrative based music videos mostly contain footage that attempts to tell a story that links to the lyrics of the song and moving image. These videos also tend to be popular with songs that are featured in films as the film will cut to a music video like scene. 

Who's Laughing Now - Jessie J

Who's Laughing Now by Jessie J is an example of a narrative based music video as the lyrics link with what we are seeing in the music video. Jessie J is singing about her bullies at school from when she was younger. From watching the music video and listening to the lyrics of the song, we gather that the story/narrative to this music video is about Jessie being bullied because when she was younger nobody believed that she was going to make it as a popular singer and now that she has after many attempts she can throw it back in their faces and prove that she was able to. 

Concept based Music Videos:

This is a style of music video that is based around a concept or idea. They tend to be fairly unique and use a particular filming or editing technique. 

Relax, Take it Easy - Mika

Mika is commonly know for his eccentric and 'out of this world' music videos. The visuals in most of his music videos don't normally link to the lyrics of the song, making them have no specific story line. The visuals in this music video are brightly coloured which are usually linked to upbeat and high energy music. This makes this music video seem odd as the lyrics about 'relaxing' and 'taking it easy' are juxtaposed with the visuals. The bright/multi-coloured, tie-dye like visuals in this music video are quite psychedelic and hippy-like, which again juxtaposes the lyrics with the visuals of the video.