Styles of Music Video

Within the genre of music videos, there is a wide variant of styles in which are incorporated within music.

Animation: These music videos will have a wide variation of ways to create said animation, whether it would be created by using items in a stop-motion like fashion, or to create them via drawing and then to place them in their frames, part by part. A recent example is of Deadmau5's The Veldt, in which the whole music video has been drawn and then animated, by Qudos Animations, the whole song, and the music video, references the story created by Ray Bradbury.

Parody: Within music videos, parodies are made to make fun of something, in this case, it can be to make fun of an artist, and/or their music video. A very known artist who is know to make fun of artists and music is Weird Al Yankovic, within his music career, he is a known example of a person who would make fun of the artists music and their videos, and add some comedy to give it the hilarity that people would expect from him. One such example is of Eat It, the parody of Michael Jackson's Beat It, some elements change, like the fact that each gang is using kitchen/eating utensils as weapons.

Narrative based: The music video essentially tells a story of some sort, in which it will have a beginning, a mid and an end to the story/video. An example is of Eric Carmen's Hungry Eyes. The beginning starts of with the artist (Eric Carmen) observing footage within a projector, as it the continues to the artist singing. The people who have created the music have used an actor to tell a story, while at the same time, uses footage from the movie Dirty Dancing.

 Performance based: What performance based is, is basically a video in which the artists perform the music, whether it would be within a studio, a concert or anything in between. The video has to have an artist or the whole band performing the music. A very notable example is of Foo Fighters, and their song 'My Hero', in which the band performs, while the house is on fire, in which it would represent the urgency of the performance.


Pastiche: If the music video is considered to be pastiche, then it must mean that the music video must have imitate a style of an artist and/or the time period, one such example is of Lady Gaga and the song named The Edge of Glory, in which in some cases, has imitated the styles of music videos of older times, such as those from the 70s-80s. It has received critical acclaim, as it has been compared to songs like Papa don't Preach by Madonna and Billie Jean by Michael Jackson.

Intertextual: Intertextual music videos combines multiple elements of each style and combines it into one music video, so it could be a cinematic music video, in the style of pastiche. A very notable example of this is by Red Hot Chili Peppers with the song called Californication, in which it combines animation, in this case, it is video games, while consisting of cinematic elements, while referring to the Blood Sugar Sex Magik era with the hair styles, making it to some degree, a bit pastiche.