Music Video Analysis

There are three main types of music videos Performance based, narrative based, abstract/artistic and deconstruction.

Performance based music videos are where the band/performer is ‘performing’ the song within the music video. Examples of bands that follow this music video convention are Nirvana – smells like teen spirit, Linkin Park – What I’ve done and System of a down - Chop suey.

Narrative based music videos are where this is a clear storyline for example Taylor swift – Love story, it is based on the story of Romeo and Juliet and this is evident throughout with a girl and a boy sneaking around seeing each other in the woods. The lyrics also relate to the video.

Abstract/artistic based music videos are where the video does not follow any conventions and is surreal. An example of where we would see this is Gotye – somebody I used to know. This video does not follow any convention but is simply artistic and different.

The Christian Mets model can be applied to music video development. The four theories experimental, classic, parody and deconstruction are used music videos.

Experimental music videos are the early stages where the codes and conventions of a music video are first divided. An example of where we would see an experimental music video is in The Beatles film called a hard day’s night, this film was a large music video of the album that The Beatles had recently produced. 

Classic music videos are the more successful videos of the early stages of music videos. These videos follow the typical conventions of a music video. An example of where we would see this is Michael Jackson’s – Beat it. MTV produced the first of air TV music channel; the first song to be played was ‘The Buggles - Video killed the radio star’ in 1979.

Parody music videos are where a video has been re-made and mocked. An example of this is Weird al yankovic – eat it. This is a re-make of Michael Jacksons – Beat it however it mocks the video as well as lyrics.

Deconstruction based music videos consist of a previous music video being used however it is then slightly manipulated. An example of this is Robert Palmer’ – Addicted to Love which has been re made but slightly manipulated by Julia Bolino.