The Three Types of Music Videos

Narrative

Narrative based videos show a deep storyline in just a small amount of time, and the music video is sometimes extended above and beyond the length of the track for extensive storylines

Performance

Performance based videos focus on the band and use lots of close ups to spread the image of the band, it is often chosen by the musicians publishers because it is cheap and advertises the band more than any other video type

Conceptual

Conceptual based videos focus mostly on the visuals of the video and not on the story or the band, they rely on a beautiful or interesting scene or sometimes a strange style of filming

Performance Example

Foo Fighters - The Pretender

As the music video begins, there is a long shot displaying an empty warehouse which has been turned into a temporary stage or performance area for the band. The first band member to enter the space, is Dave Grohl and this is significant because Grohl is the lead singer and suggested face of Foo Fighters.

Dave Grohl is quickly followed by the other members of the band. None of the members of the band say anything they just pick up their instruments and begin playing.

There are various shots within the music video to capture the emotion of the band members, but there are a lot of close-ups of Dave Grohl rather than the other members of the band. This echoes the fact that many connotations of the band relates to Grohl being the main image for the band.

There is also a tracking shot of Grohl whilst he plays his guitar along to the song. The Camera Shots such as this tracking shot are very fast pace to link well to the song and genre (Rock) as the music is generally fast pace for the duration of the song.

Despite 'The Pretender' displaying majority of performance codes and conventions, there is a narrative that occurs around 1.20 in the video. There are characters dressed as SWAT teams or something similar, entering the building the band are in. The narrative although easier to understand later on in the video, is at first restricted to the audience as there is no speech or noticeable storyline. We notice towards the end of the video, one of the SWAT characters has a close-up of them potentially screaming and launching an attack on the band. Resulting in a water explosion from the band, whcih to me doesn't make a lot of sense.

Narrative Example

Even though this song shows aspects of narrative, there is performance aspects in the song too. Close-ups of the singer singing extremely close to the microphone.

The narrative is shown during the first 20 - 25 seconds of the song and the actual song doesn't begin till 26 seconds in also.

Bon Jovi - It's My Life

The song is around 50/50 performance and narrative and this enables the narrative to come through but also the band to make an appearance and for the synchronous sound to occur.

Throughout the song, there are aspects of Synchronous sound. this is when the sound matches the certain movements or scenes in the music video. The band member's thrust their arms in the air along with the drum beats.

For the narrative in this music video, it is based on the POV (point of View) of a mid 20s boy meeting a girl at a Bon Jovi concert in a tunnel. It shows his journey to this concert and explores the amount of encounters he has to go through to get there.

This example is shown through the use of Tzvetan Todorov's narrative theory. Todorov's theory suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure where they begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is restored.

During the opening of the music video, there is are an array of camera shots ranging from: a mid shot, POV shot, 90-degree shot, and also an editing technique called cross cutting. This is where there are two scenes occurring at the exact same time and these two scenes are shown to the audience. In this case, the way in which they link, is that they are on a phone call and so the audience can immediately begin to assume the narrative between these two characters.

The narrative during this music video is an example of an un-restricted narrative as the audience can easily understand the story. The narrative consists of a young man in around his mid 20s, who is talking to a girl of the same age on the phone and there is an example of a Cross-Cut as two scenes are occurring at the same time.

Todorov's theory relates to the narrative between the man and woman in this music video because at the beginning there is an equilibrium of him at his desk feeling happy on his computer. This then changes to his first problem - he has forgotten the concert is on. He resolves this by running towards the venue. To then be greeted by his next problem - getting tangled up between a dog walker and their dogs. the dogs then are seen chasing him to increase this issue. He manages to escape these dogs but in the process of this risks getting ran over. As the song progresses and the problems are constantly resolved, he manages to get to the concert to meet the girl he was meeting. Resulting in an equilibrium at the end of the music video.

Conceptual Example

Radiohead - Lift

The song 'Lift' is filmed similarly to a story or a period of events occurring in this particular lift. The song begins with the scene being the inside of a lift. The lift appears to be somewhat haunting but does also look like a regular lift that could fit into any location.

At 0.14, we see the lift opening and the first character entering the lift. He looks like a regular middle-aged man and is carrying a blue bag which to me looks like he has just returned from the shops. The way in which he is dressed and walks into the lift promotes himself as a regular guy.

Shortly after this, at 0.19, two more people enter the lift. There is a younger girl and a older woman who could either be an older sister or her mother, it is not quite clear. She enters the lift almost guarding her younger accompany as she follows her around the lift almost in unison. Both girls seem to ignore the fact that this man is in the lift, but as time progresses the older woman smiles across to the man as if to settle this awkwardness occurring. Both girls leave the lift at 0.36 and the younger girl is led out of the lift by the older woman. Despite this, the younger girl manages to push down on all the lift's buttons to purposely annoy the man inside the lift, meaning his journey in the lift would be even longer. He does react to this simultaneously by holding his arms up in disbelief and annoyance and looking to the floor, glumly.

At 0.50 a elderly woman enters the lift along with her trolley. She is a lot more wary of her surroundings, as she looks at the man and slightly moves backwards and as another man enters the lift at 1.04, she then steps more out of their way as if she feels threatened. She also clutches her trolley to echo her feelings towards him. The man that has entered the lift is a lot more poorer as shown with his clothing: a ripped suit and one foot hasn't even got a shoe on. Despite this, he does seem like he is trying to make an effort in the job market etc, as he has a briefcase which could symbolise hims attempting to find a job. He exits the lift in what looks like a broken and unloved section of the flats they are in. As he exits, the woman un-clutches her trolley in a sense of relief. At 1.30 the elderly lady exits the lift to what appears to be an upside down corridor, which even she stops to question. After she has left, the man from the beginning (still in the lift) moves to the centre of the lift to look out upon the corridor they have approached.

Although, he is suddenly bombarded by a bunch of business men entering the lift at 1.37. The shot used to capture the similarity of these men is a POV (Point of View) Shot. We notice that the business men are all bold and this could suggest that the stress of the business sector could take it's toll on these men. As they enter the lift they squash the man already inside into the centre and this makes him stand out a lot from the other men.

As time progresses, the lift opens but no one enters and we just see different places and insights to where people live. At 3.25 a black man who entered the lift at 3.08 is shown leaving to go to a heavily covered white place and so this introduces the contrast between the colour white and black.

After this, we notice on the button panel that there is only one more stop left and we believe that would be the man from the beginning's stop. As the lift doors open a final time we see almost a mirrored image of the inside of this lift in another. As the man walks into the other lift, we see that the camera shot changes from being on a tripod into handheld to suggest there is another person watching this occur.

The man walks into the other lift and immediately pulls of the identical individual's head which then appears to make him bald. Revealing to the audience that the characters in the song lift were members of the band 'Radiohead' making this video not only a Conceptual and slightly Narrative music video but partly a Performance based music video too.

The last scene shows the man from the beginning of the song but, this cannot be the same man as he was in the lift behind them and so this slightly tricks the audience's mind and suggests if the men are constantly going around in this lift and stuck in a constant cycle.