In this assignment I will be discussing the different types of music videos as well as explaining their purpose, styles and techniques.
Purpose
What are music videos?
A Music video is a short film integrating imagery and song, produced to promote a song and the artist. Music videos first came up during the 1980s. Music videos are made to promote a song or album as well as the artist in a appealing and interesting way, in order to make as many sales as possible. Most music videos tell a story or deliver a message, to embrace the audience and grab their attention, making them more interested in the song or album persuading them to buy it. Music videos are a good way for directors and film makers to express their creativity and passion. Music videos use a wide range of techniques and styles in order to promote their video such as animation and time-lapse and many more. Music videos also help the artist become famous as the video not only promotes their song, it also promotes their acting skills within the short video. Music videos are made to promote a song and its artist as well as promoting the director and sometimes products. Products are placed into music videos to help promote them. This is called product placement.
This music video sung by The Black Eyed Peas is an example of a music video that uses product placement. This video features a Nokia phone, Beats By Dr Dre Headphones and a HP laptop. The use of product placement is well known music videos as its very effective as it helps promote manufactures products to a much wider range of people. Manufactures allow music videos to do this as they know that the video will be popular therefore more people will see their product, helping promote that product, making more sales.
Styles
Music videos feature all different kinds of styles and genres. These features help make the videos interesting and unique compared to other music videos. Below are the types of styles and their definitions. There are seven types of music video catogries. These include:
  • Narrative
  • Interpretive
  • Parody
  • Pastiche
  • Performance
  • Impressionist
  • Surreal
Narrative
A narrative is a music video that tells a story throughout the video and describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events, normally shown as a short story or film. Narrative music videos are normally very popular as it engages the audience in the story and the story can often relate to the audiences experiences for example, a breakup, death in the family ect. A large range of artists now include narratives into their music videos as its different to usual music videos and the story that the artists has chosen to project, may be a special topic for them or something they feel strongly for. For example a music video about the misuse of drugs, music video on gangs ect.
This video is an example of a narrative music video. This video tells the story of an obsessed Ed Sheeran fan, who trys to follow the life go the artist. As the video progresses so does the story, resulting in a clear idea of what the character is going through. This video is very effective as normally the artists is shown throughout the whole music video, however in this video Ed Sheeran is only shown for a couple of seconds at the end of the video.
Interpretive
Interpretive means something that looks like something else, but has a different meaning. Interpretive music videos normally want the audience to make their own interpretation of what they think the music video is about.
This video is sung by Rihanna and is called Russian Roulette. This video is a prime example of an interpretive music video as the video dent have a clear meaning giving the audience time to inter prate it in whatever way they want. The video is about a woman who appears to of been placed inside a special Russian prison, where the guards don’t seem to be too nice to her. This means that the audience has to interpret their own meaning on the video as it isn’t made clear where she is or why she is there.
Parody
parody is a spoof, in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous,satiric or ironic imitation. Parody music videos aren’t the most popular way in which an artist chooses to promote his or hers music however it is becoming more and more popular and is usually very popular amongst the audience.
This video is an example of a parody music video. This video was created by a group called The Lonely Island and features the singer Michael Bolton and is called Jack Sparrow. As you can see from the name of the video, this parody music video focuses on the film Pirates of the Caribbean. Towards the end of the video the theme changes to Scarface and Forest Gump. This video is very successful as it features the singer Michael Bolton singing a completely different version of the song to which the group are singing. What also makes this video interesting is Michael Bolton dressed up as the characters Jack Sparrow and Tony Montanna (scarface) and Forest Gump as you would never normally see a famous actor doing this sort of thing which also adds to the theme comedy.
Pastiche 
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a imitation.
This music video is an example of a pastiche music video. This video is called Youlle Always find me int the kitchen At Parties. This video uses a 80s themed party, with retro clothing, in a modern environment. This video is made interesting as the two guys travel from kitchen to kitchen through cupboards, through fridges and using draws as a stairway up to the next kitchen. Also toward the end of the video the artists appear to be dancing on the kitchen ceiling. This also gives the video more appeal and makes it unique.
Performance 
A music video that features a live performance or footage from a live performance.
This is an example of a performance music video. This video is sung by the band Jet and is called Are You Gonna Be My Girl. Performance music videos normally show a live performance of the band or artist and can include scenes from a plot or story. To make this video more interesting it uses the black and white effect. This makes the video more interesting as most music videos are shot in colour. This video also uses animation in the background and coming of the equipment to make this video more interesting than just a black and white performance video.
This is another example of a performance music video by the band Nickelback called When We Stand Together. This video features the band playing in the countryside as well as cutting away to shots of lees fortunate people who live in deprived areas. This is very effective as it gives the video more of a story and engages the audience more as there is more going on. There are 3 different types of performance music video. These include band, dancing and singing. This particular video is a band performance music video. This video is very effective of advertising its message as it makes the audience realise the amount of poverty and suffering in the world with the use of its powerful lyrics and clips from poorer areas.
This music video is an example of a dance music video. This music video is sung by Beyonce and is called Single Ladies. Compared to band music video, this video only includes dance. This music video has been made interesting with the use of black and white and different camera angles, much like the Jet music video, however is only a simple black and white video with no real stylistic features.
This video is an example of a singing music video. This song is sung by Matt Cardle and is called Run For Your Life. This video simply features the artist singing the song whilst the rest of the video cuts to different images and tells a story to make it more interesting. To give this video a more of an appealing theme, clips are shown projected onto a wall while Matt is walking and singing his lyrics.
Surreal 
Surreal is something that is so strange you cant believe its real. Mostly animated music videos fall under this style.
This music video is an example of a surreal music video. This song is sung by a-ha and is called Take on me. As you can see this video uses real visual images and well as animated combined into one. This video is made surreal due to the moving comic book and the way the female character gets pulled into the animated, fantasy world, but she remains real while everything else is animated . I feel that this video is very successful and appealing to the audience as its different compared to most music videos, its unusual and original.
Techniques
Music videos use a number of techniques as well as styles to help promote their videos and to make them more interesting. In this section of the assignment I will be talking about four of them. These include;
  • Lighting
  • Special effects
  • Black and white
  • Camera shots
Cinematography
Cinematography is a form of art that is unique to motion pictures. Cinematography consists of art, and work of photography in making films.
SFX 
SFX are special effects or illusions used in a film or in this case a music video, used to simulate the the imagined events in a story or virtual world.
Post Production
Post production  is a part of filmmaking and the video production process. For example an editor would be involved in post production. The editor is in charge of cutting the clips together and for adding special effects, camera filters and tuning the camera shots to create a final, finished product.
Lighting
Low Key
Low key lighting means, dark or dull images with little or no contrast. Usually used in horrors or thrillers. Low key can also use grey or blue filters over the camera lens to make the picture more dark and dull.
This music video is called Cry Me A River by Justin Timberlake. This video is an example of how low key lighting can be used in music videos, in order to create tension and emotion. This is a video about emotions on revenge on his ex girlfriend. The lighting shows this as its very dull scene, a blue filter is used to simulate cold, wet and dull theme and when Justin is in the house, the only light appears to be the natural light from outside. As the audience we are meant to believe that this is the only night when it actually a lighting effect to trick the us the audience. This simulates hate and upset. This video makes the audience feel his pain due to the low key lighting and use of blue and grey filters.
During editing the editor would of added more effects and filters in order to give this video a sad, dull and upsetting theme.
High Key
High key lighting means, lighting that produces tones that fall mostly between white and gray, with very few dark-gray or black tones. Compared to low key lighting, high key is bright and cheerful lighting.
This music video is called What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction. This music video is an example of how high key lighting is used in a music video. Where as Justin Timberlakes video was about upset and the lighting was dull and dismal, One Directions video is bright, sunny and warm. The effects on this makes the audience feel happy and joyful also the music video is shot on a beach in california where as Justin Timberlake’s video is shot on a rainy day at his ex girlfriends house. This video is about love, happiness, joy and romance, which makes this video the complete opposite to Justin’s Cry Me A River video.
This music video is called ET and its artist is Katy Perry. This video uses multiple special effects such as the floating alien and the use of space. This video was entirely shot on a green screen and the special effects were added during editing. Katy Perry has used the space and planet special effects as these couldn’t be made reality, due to not being able to go into space and to make the video unique. This video is very successful with the use of the special effects as its created a theme that isn’t used much these days and has created very high quality, visual images to attract the audience, making the music video unique and making it stand out compared to other music videos. Special effects are normally very expensive depending on the amount used and the quality of the effects.
Black and white
This music video is called The A Team and is sung by Ed Sheeran. The whole of this music video are shot in black and white, instead of standard and more popular music videos being shot in colour. The theme for this music video is depression and pain. The use of black and white in this video, helps show the theme as it makes the audience feel sad and sorry for the female character.
Camera shots
This music video is called No Regrets and is sung by Dappy. This video uses a number of camera angles and shots in order to make this video interesting. In this video we see quite a lot of panning shots as well as low angle shots (to make the character seem big and powerful), high angle shots (to make the character seem small and weak), close up shots to show the emotion of the characters lyrics and long shots so that the audience can see the characters clearly. Also the video uses a fade transition between shots. This is to ad a bit of emotion and feeling to the video. I feel that these chamber angles and shots work really well with the theme and lyrics of the song as the song is about having no regrets and I feel that the camera shots really pursue this theme as the transitions are smooth and rental.
Conclusion
In conclusion the techniques and styles used in music videos are very successful in promoting the band, artist or director to the audience. Also the use of effects and camera shots make the videos more enjoyable to watch and makes the videos unique and creative.