Categories of Music Videos

Performance-
The music video category of performance is a simplistic visual usually using a minimal budget. Performance videos often show the artist throughout the majority, if not all, of the music video. Quite oftenly, the music video is associated with clips embedded from elsewhere.

A positive example of a Performance music video would be the song 'Hero' by 'Nickelback'. We are shown the band on a rooftop of what looks like the backstreets of New York. This song offically collates with the film 'Spiderman'. This was the official soundtrack of the Spiderman movie released in 2002. Within the music video we can see small snippets of the film, which couild act as a film promoter as well as a music video. The whole concept of the band being on top of a building in NYC would be very effective in terms of promoting the band 'Nickelback' and the film 'Spiderman'.

A performance video would often be associated with rock bands. Bands such as 'Nickelback', 'The Fray' and 'The Darkness' would show the artist throughout most of the video.

So, Why do some artists insist on showing themselves as the centre of the audience's attention?
Merely for promotional purposes, it would seem. Sometimes an artist would like to create an icon for themselves, and for people to begin to recognise members of the band, lead singer especially. It's quite clear that performance music videos are often used by bands more than solo artists. If an audience could see a band, they can relate to the lyrics and gain a positive aura. Sometimes, it would seem that to see the artist is better because the audience could potentiallly create a relation to the video and then they can pinpoint lyrics, analysing them in the process and furthermore relating it to their lives.

Performance music videos are effective due to the circumstances. Most of these are done out of choice to focus on the artist rather than effects ETC. As mentioned before, there would be more than one purpose for many performance music videos. 'Hero' By 'Nickelback' has two purposes, the video for the bands portfolio and promoter for then, upcoming movie, 'Spiderman'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zueKq3z3Sk

Narrative-
Narrative music videos are exactly what they sound like. They tell a story and tends to use actors instead of members of the band. The actions of the actors most likely would relate to the lyrics. Sometimes in a controversial song, the act would be contradictory of what the song is trying to acheive, mainly for effect.

A good example of a conventonal Narrative video would be 'The Killers' song 'When you were Young'. The location is in what looks like South America and pictures a couple and their progress of falling in and out of love. It is very effective and goes alongside the lyris, it would seem. The concept of 'He doesn't look a thing like Jesus" is traditionally what Hispanic woman set their aims for when looking for a man. So the whole setting and that lyric contradict each other effectively. The song seems powerful and the words in the song are hugely significant to the video.

Despite the music video being solely based on the actors, we see Brandon Flowes, Lead singer of 'The Killers' in certain parts of the song. This shows him in the place of a narrator, and this furthermore promotes Brandon Flowers as the icon for 'The Killers', which he well and truly is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff0oWESdmH0

Concept-
The concept music video soley focuses on one thing or idea and is mainly unusual. These videos, to be perfectly honest, are not the most appealing to all people, but there are some hugely positive and effective ones.

The one I think is the best example of a concept music video would be another 'Killers' song. 'Read my mind' sees Brandon Flowers and other members of the band, including actors going through a stream of interesting and highly unusual antics. The idea, when analysed is that it is hugely dreamlike when you see the goings-on in the music video. It is set in Tokyo, and immensly surreal when you evaluate everything going on in the video.

The dreamlike state relates to 'Read My Mind' in terms of somebody trying to pinpoint emotions of a person they are talking to and the concept of reading one's mind relates to magic and what a magician claims he/she can do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc8hbSM1zVo&ob=av3e