styles, conventions and techniques of music videos

Introduction

In this essay, I will list the styles, conventions and techniques of music videos giving examples for each and going in to detail about the different aspects of every music video examples I mention.

In concert
In concert videos are where the band pretend to be acting live in concert for their video.

In the video for OutKasts Hey Ya! it is designed to look like they are going out on stage to a huge crowd of adoring and screaming fans on live TV in a time where television was still in black and white showing families watching them play and getting excited and getting up to dance. The video also cuts to the beat and has long close ups of the band to help promote them and a features some obvious lip syncing this is meant to make the band look loved and that they have loads of fans very crazy about them. for example in this scene a woman is dragged off stage for running at the bands singer.

As live footage
sAs live footage are where the performer is shown completing an actual live show.
In this music video the heavy are featured on the late show with David Letterman, the camera moves to show whoever is singing when the bands main singer is singing we are shown close ups of him and when the entire band join in we are shown a shot with all of them in and if the backup singers or extra musicians chip in the camera goes to them. The video also has a lot of sweeping camera movements going over and around the band.

animation 
Some animated videos will use digital animation and some others like in the case of my example will use stop motion.

In the video for primus' The Devil Went Down To Georgia stop motion animation is used to tell the story of the devil looking for a soul to steal and finding a man playing a fiddle, the devil challenges the man to a fiddling contest with the wager being his soul if he loses and a golden fiddle if he wins. The animation is fascinating and grabs your attention very quickly.

narrative
Narrative music videos tell a short story.

In the video for The Staves "black and white" it shows us the reaction of a news anchor finding out that her co anchor husband has cheated on her, and their argument about it while they are live on air.
this sets up a strong narrative right away with the first scene where she is told by about her husbands bad deeds by a co worker and the audience immediately understands the situation going into the song.

interpretive
Some interpretive music videos are about audience interpretation where the audience draws their own conclusions from the visuals and sometimes they are about production interpretation which is where the video shows exactly whats happening in the lyrics.


In the lonely islands video "threw it on the ground" the singer Andy Samberg sings about being handed different things and his general disgust at the these actions to the point that he says the name of the song "I threw it on the ground" this sentence is used a lot and whenever it is said the item being mentioned is shown being thrown on the ground. For example "Some poser hands me cake at a birthday party, What you want me to do with this eat it? I threw it on the ground" followed by the images shown below

Impressionist
An Impressionist video tries to create feelings in its viewers through sometimes unconventional imagery that may or may not be related to the lyrics.


The video for Moby-wait for me follows a day in the life of a man in a video game with a marriage and job on thin ice, everything in his day goes wrong as he avoids the typical obstacles in a video game he is attacked and fights his way to his work where he is promptly fired by his boss who he then fights with and accidentally kills him he is shocked by what hes done and jumps out of a window to escape. He is then mugged and beaten and brought home to his wife by a police officer, once he is home however his wife tells him shes leaving and he takes a moment before going up his bedroom and in a few seconds his the final video game life breaks in two and its game over. This can be interpreted as him choosing to take his own life or his heart breaking from his grief, either way it is a strong music video that creates a lot of sadness and empathy in the viewer.

Surrealist
surrealistic music videos are extremely abstract and feature content that may have no relation to music at all and often use a mixture of animation and live action to create surreal and strange effects.

In the red hot chili peppers music video other side it features the band using over sized strings and telephone lines to play, fights with dragons, abstract and oddly shaped buildings and cars this creates a strange and hard to understand for example there is a part where one of the band is fighting his own shadow.

Pastiche
pastiche is parody of a style or artist usually done showing respect towards the artist.

In lady GaGas video Alejandro she often references a song by madonna called vogue in which the singer is in black and white wearing black clothing and dark lighting, lady gaga has a similar style for her video.

Parody
Is work created to directly imitate, make fun of and copy the style of another author.

In the music video "word crimes" by Weird Al it directly parodies and references the original song he parodies, blurred lines for example in the beginning of both songs they both have bold text with a hashtag.

Influence commercials

In the video for coldplays adventure of a lifetime it features the beats pill speaker this is an obvious advertisement for the product inside the music video.