Music vid categories

Music vid categories

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  Categories of Music Videos ByJumana Ismail
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  Three main categories: Whenproducing music videos, it is important to know that there are three different categories in which music videos fit in to and some may vary depending on the genre of the song. Each of the three categories are significant in music videos and are used for a vital purpose. The three main categories are:  Performance based videos Narrative based videos Concept based
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  Performance based videos Performancebased videos are typical within many music videos, in which the artist simply performs their song in a studio or at a concert, portraying the fact that they are the ones singing the song. Performance based songs may impact the audience massively as they may focus more on the lyrics of the song rather than the actual music video. In addition, this may connect the audience to the artist more, as they are watching the artist singing the actual lyrics and therefore the artist may be implying that the lyrics are directly coming from the artist within. Performance based videos are popular within the Indie Folk genre as the artist would rather be more intimate with the lyrics in order to captivate the audience with meaning behind the song. Additionally, performance based videos tend to be used a lot with rock bands, because rock bands tend to perform at really energetic and lively concerts , in which their demographic would be more interested in watching the concert in addition to listening to their songs. Examples of performance based videos:  30 seconds to Mars- ‘Closer to the Edge’  Beyonce – ‘Listen’  Daughter- ‘Youth’  Green day – ‘American Idiot’  Saving Aimee – ‘Fresh since’88’ The song ‘Youth’ by Daughter is the song that me and my group decided to produce a music video to. We thought that it would be good idea to create a music video to it due to the fact that it is a performance based video and by doing so, we will have an original idea added towards it. The audience may also be excited and attracted to watch out music video as they may be enticed to know if their imagination of the lyrics was similar or not.
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  Example of aperformance based music video Green day – ‘American Idiot’ Green day is an American rock band that have a performance based music video based on their song, ‘American Idiot’. The whole video is performance based in which their a various amount of camera shots that illustrate the band performing the song and one of the band members (Billie Joe) singing directly into the camera. By doing this, the audience pay more attention to the actual band and enabling the audience to feel part of the performance and more attached. Furthermore, this song is very political, indirectly informing their audience about disorder and chaos that occurs in America today , so by making this song a performance based video, they are implying to their audience that this is directly how they feel. They may believe that they do not need an ‘acted out’ narrative to portray the meaning behind the song as they strongly believe in what they are singing.
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  Narrative based videos Narrativebased videos consist of music videos with a story line throughout that mainly relates to the lyrics of the song and its genre. By adding a story line to a music video, it enables the audience to become more hooked and interested to watch the music video. Narrative based music videos tend to rely on the visuals and the imagery in order to produce a captivating story for the audience to follow. A narrative based music video may be performed by the actual artists who sing the song, or from other actors/dancers that perform in the music video. In addition, a narrative added in a music video will allow the audience to be able to interact with the video and include their thoughts in how they imagined the video to be. Narrative based music videos also boost the viewers experience when watching the video as it allows them to see the artists visual illustration of what they thought the lyrics meant. Furthermore, it is very common for many narrative based music videos to use part of the film that the song has been featured in. For example, this is present in the song ‘Decode’ by Paramore that have been taken from the movie Twilight. Examples of Narrative based music videos:  Bruno Mars- ‘Grenade’  Jay z ft Kanye West ‘ No church in Wild’
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  Example of aNarrative based music video An example of a music video that is a narrative based music video would be ‘Take on Me’ by A-ha. The music video has a theme of a romantic fantasy narrative in which the story line consists of a tableau of pencil drawings in a comic book that represents competitive motorcycle sidecar racing. The story in the comic book portrays the hero pursued by two enemies. Subsequently , with the use of editing techniques , the scene cuts to a woman sitting in a cafe drinking coffee. After asking the waitress for her bill, the comic hero winks at the girl from the comic book and reaches out his pencil drawn hand to invite the woman into the comic book. As her pencil form self goes into the comic book, the hero sings to the woman as he introduces her to his own animated world. Eventually and throughout the music video, the hero flashes between the real life version of himself and the animated one. Although this is mainly narrative based, there are scenes in the music video where the artist is lip syncing into the camera, and therefore this adds a slight performance to the music video.
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  Concept based musicvideos Concept based music videos can be very common, specifically within the Indie Folk genre due to the fact that they are based around a single idea or a random concept with no specific storyline. In addition, concept based music videos tend to have a different music video that may not be connected or linked to the theme of the song. Concept based music videos tend to have a unique style of filming and editing which work well with the random concept. Concept based music videos can be very entertaining to a diverse demographic and therefore may have a high sales rate. Examples of concept based music videos would be: -Aphex Twins - “Monkey Drummer” - OK Go - “Here it goes again” - Benny Bennasi – “Satisfaction” I have decided to focus on one particular concept based music video , “Here it goes again” by OK Go.
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  OK Go –“Here it goes again” This music video is an evident example of a concept based music video due to the fact that the music video is very random and does not link to the theme of the music video. The music video is most probably shot in one go in order to create a sense of realism as well as continuity throughout the music video. The fact that the band has created this catchy dance captivates the audience and enables it to become popular as many people would want to copy the same dance moves . The concept was very unique yet very effective as the music video eventually went viral and hit the charts on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014. this video became one of the most watched videos on YouTube, with other 52 million views. Tie idea of this unique concept increased the sales for the album as well as created more popularity for the band as a whole, as well as attracting a wider demographic.