Music Video Styles

There are 3 types of concepts when talking about music videos. Thematic, Symbolic and Idea Based. There are also narratives and performances that give the music video a message to the audience. They need to be aesthetically pleasing to attract a wide audience.

Thematic:

Depends on the genre of the music, for example heavy metal bands have live performances in their music video, and rap has a lot of street , money and rural images.

 This is a classic rap music video with generic street shots and large groups of people which are portrayed as their gang or "mob". Alcohol, Guns, Money and Violence. Violence in the sense of a hammer getting dragged along the floor, and money in the sense of having a silver plated grill in his mouth.

Symbolic:

Use of lots of symbols to build up meaning e.g. graveyard represents death.

Idea Based:
Lots of different ideas and themes all rolled into one.

Performance:

Performance music videos include shots of the artists performing, usually on a live stage including the audience within the clips to show their reaction. It relates to a real life situation of them performing at a festival. It often includes lots of close ups of the artist to promote what they look like, and of them lip syncing the lyrics.  This music video portrays the rappers power and ego of themselves, and compare themselves to gods "you are now watching the thrown, don't let me get in my zone." In the video it seems that they're performing to a VIP crowd.
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Narrative:

Often the video tells a story either that features in the lyrics or is suggested in the lyrics, for example a girl that dumps a boy. The narrative can be like a mini film, with a beginning, middle and end. The narrative shots are very fast paced, lots of shots and cuts are included. They mimic other films and TV genre e.g. horror or sci fi. Sometimes the story can contradict what is seen for effect, and the artist is part of a story or event they portray. The classic Halloween song. Michael Jackson is dancing with zombies in a graveyard. Before hand the music video started of with Michael and his date at the cinema, watching the story leading up to the song