Types of Music Videos

Performance Based Video

These are music videos that feature the artist/band/group performing the song through most if not all of the video. It’s probably the easiest to do on a budget provided you can get a suitable location for filming. A good example of this is would be "Vampire Weekend". The video for this is mostly performance based with random video footage presumably licensed from elsewhere.

Narrative Based Video

A narrative based music video contains mostly footage that attempts to tell a story through the moving image. Usually involving actors, the story is sometimes linked to the lyrical content of the song, but this isn’t always the case. This type of music video tends to be popular for a song that’s featured in a movie and you will often see scenes cut into the music video. A good example of this is ‘C U When U Get There’ by Coolio. A good narrative based video to check out would be ‘Always’ by Bon Jovi.

Concept Based Video

This is a style of music video that is based around a single concept or idea. These types of videos tend to be fairly unusual or utilize a particular editing or filming technique. It’s not often you get a purely conceptual music video as the commercial world demands things to be a bit more accessible but a great example is ‘Monkey Drummer’ by Aphex Twin. Check it out below.