What are the different types of music video?

There are five different types of music videos. Every music video falls into these, nevertheless many music videos have a combination of all of them.

- showcase
- spectacle
- narrative
- intertextual
- crossover

The most common types of music videos are showcase, spectacle and narrative.

Showcase

Showcase music videos are videos that showcase the artist, meaning usually the video is filmed completely focused on the band or artist, with maybe sometimes occasional dancers etc. Normally, many close-ups and mid-shots are used to introduce the artist or each member of band to the audience. Therefore, this can be a very useful type of music video for bands such as One direction, Take that and Coldplay.

Spectacle

Spectacle music videos are what could be seen as the unusual, unique or strange videos. They normally involve artists that are a bit different, for example belonging to a less popular genre of music such as indie.

An example of this it the very unique music video of a chart song called Lean On by Major Lazer & DJ Snake.

 

Narrative

Narrative music videos are becoming increasingly popular choice of video. Narrative music videos follow a story which normally relates to the context of the song. Therefore, you would expect to see part of a story unfold possibly with a range of different camera shots. As this is an early stage in my development, but I feel like this will be the type I would base my own music video to.

An example of a narrative music video is Taylor Swift's song called 'Love Story'.

Intertextual

Intertextual music videos are ones in which combine the music video with another piece of media for example, a film or video game. A good example of this is Skyfall by Adele which was a song created for the use of the main theme song to an new releasing film. Therefore, the song's music video was combined with images and scenes for the film 'Skyfall'.

An example of this is Fifth Harmony song 'I'm in love With a Monster' which is a song created and used for the film Hotel Transylvania 2. These screenshots show parts of the music video that involve the band themselves but also scenes of the movie.

Crossover

A crossover music video show different characteristics of all the different types mentioned above. The most common crossover is a spectacle and a showcase, because the artist is most often part of the spectacle, (storyline).

An example of this is The Vamps music video, Somebody To You ft. Demi Lovato.
In this video, there are scenes focusing on the band where they just play their instruments and sing, as well as scenes of other characters showcasing a storyline of friends. Therefore, this video is a narrative, crossover and showcase music video.