Types of Music Videos

There are three main types of music videos

• Perfomance Based videos
• Narrative Based videos 
• Concept Based videos

PERFORMANCE BASED VIDEOS

Performance videos mainly focus on the artist or band just plainly performing either on their own or in front of a crowd. Mostly common with rock music videos in the 1980's.They never usually have any type of narrative amongst the video and usually have a wide variety of camera angles and regularly repeats the same shots. The audience is also usually featured in the music video, to give a connection to the audiences at home who are watching the music video. Performance music videos use repeated camera angles and usually involve close ups of the band members playing instruments. Performance videos represent more of a star image focusing on the band or artist.
This music video by Maximo Park is a performance based music video, however it is clearly choreographed and does not appear to involve a live audience. It still features a particular location, rather than a stage.

Parallel to this music video is a video for the 90's band Rage Against the machine. This music video features an audience and a live performance. 

NARRATIVE BASED VIDEOS

Narrative based videos is usually mixed with performance involved occasionally, with the artist singing, or playing an instrument. This is usually very popular amongst hip hop artists as they show little performance and show what the video is about. There is usually a story behind the video with a clear beginning middle and end. Most pop artists feature as characters in their own music videos, which would suggest that the meaning of the music video and song means something personal to the artist. For example;

However some narrative based music videos do not feature any of the band or artists, and just narrate the meaning of the song. For example, this video by maximo park illustrates drinking and alcohol, but also has other messages that are unrelated to the lyrics to give more of a story;

These videos have a story that they are trying to get something across to the audience rather than focusing on the meaning of the lyrics. They usually follow closely to the song and are used if the song i longer than four and a half lyrics. Some narrative videos are loosely related to the lyrics of the song, but some are not relevant at all. 

CONCEPT BASED MUSIC VIDEOS

Concept based videos are based on a concept or an idea. They tend to be fairly unique or utilise a particular editing or filming technique. Concept videos intrigue a specific target audience and emphasise the technological advancements and practices that modern music videos are now accustomed to do. A popular concept based video is Californication by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers