A narrative music video is a video that has a story to it that is easy to follow and normally relevant to the lyrics/music.
An example of this is 'No Love' by Eminem and Lil Wayne:
I used this video by Lil Wayne and Eminem to demonstrate a narrative video, as it tells a story about a boy who is getting bullied and then stands up to his fears.
In this shot we can see the boy sitting down being surrounded by the bullies. As this scene is in black and white it symbolises the pain and misery of the scene.
The video uses quick transitions to switch between the artists, Eminem and Lil Wayne, lip syncing and the narrative video of the boy.
Again this scene is in black and white to symbolise the boys' fear.
A variety of camera shots is used throughout the music video including whilst filming the artists lip syncing.
In this screenshot we can see more into the narrative story of how the boy has to see his parents whilst beaten and bruised from his school bullies.
In the end of the video the boy retaliates and stands up to his bullies. This ends the music video and concludes the storyline of the video.
No Love by Eminem and Lil Wayne includes extracts from this video 'What Is Love' by Haddaway. The lyrics go 'what is love, baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more' which is illustrated from the 'No Love' music video as the boy that is getting bullied wants it to come to a stop.
Performance music videos mainly focus on the band or artist of the song, and show them playing in front of a crowd or on their own. These videos will normally show no, or little narrative and use a wide variety of camera angles.
An example of this is 'The Pretender' by Foo Fighters:
I used this video by Foo Fighters as it displays all conventions of a performance video.
It contains a variety of different camera shots and quick transitions to keep the audience entertained throughout the video.
It shows the band lip syncing and playing their instruments to the camera.
or
'Cousins' by Vampire Weekend:
This video by Vampire Weekend only contains one camera angle and displays the band, mainly Ezra Koenig, the lead singer, lip syncing and playing their instruments.
I used this music video as an example to a performance video as it contains no story line and mainly displays them preforming to the camera.
However, this music video differs to many other performance videos as it contains few different camera angles.
By definition a music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. The origins of music videos date back much further, however they gained popularity in the 1980's when MTV began to display them.
Music videos have several categories in which they can be styled. These include:
Performance
Narrative
Cameo
Concept
Animation
The first music video broadcasted on MTV in 1981 was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles.
Gangnam Style by PSY is currently the most viewed music video on YouTube with 2.4 billion views (September 3rd).
On December 21st, 2012, Gangnam Style became the first music video to hit 1 billion views, since then it has won various awards such as 'Best Video' at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2012, and was recognised as most 'liked' video on Youtube by Guinness World Records also in 2012.
Gangnam Style has received so much positive reviews and fame due to its catchy beat and PSY's funny dance moves. PSY's dance moves then became a phenomenon in themselves receiving notice from other celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears.
This then creates more awareness of the song and music video as it is shown to the audience of Britney Spears and Ellen DeGeneres which gives the song more views and sales.
