Genre theory- Firth1998 & Karlson

Music Videos can be categorized in three broad typologies: 

Performance - this is to convey a sense of in-concert experience, a lot of the time artists will make this kind of video to draw the audience in, it would feel like watching the video is an experience in itself, almost like you are watching the artist in concert, these kind of videos can be used to promote tours, because watching them in a video where they are singing live would reassure to you that they do sound the same in concert as they do on the CD. 

Adele used this as her music video for the song 'Someone like you' for a few months after her performance at the Brit Awards, this performance showed the world that she can just stand there and sing and her performance will be just as good as anyone who is jumping around with tonnes of lights around them, this video shows that she is simple and she doesn't need a lot of props or anything to make her performance a good one. This video was used until an official one came out because the buzz around her performance at the Brits was too much to wait for the real video to come out, so this was released until the official one was available. This also was one of her first singles out, so this was like her coming out to the world to say that she isn't just here for a one hit wonder, but that she is a big contender in the music world. 

Narrative - this is when a story is used in the video to either put across a point, but sometimes the story isn't alot to do with the lyrics, this might be to engage the audience, to make them want to actually watch the video instead of just listening to the song, artists tend to do this so that watching the video is an experience in itself. The stories used in music videos are mostly love stories, this is because a lot of people can relate to the typical love stories that are portrayed in music videos. 

'Action is the story dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen' said by Schwichtenberg in 1992. 

Taylor Swift uses narratives in all of her music videos,  'We are never ever getting back together' tells the typical love story of a couple breaking up and then one of them wanting it to work out and trying their best to make it up to the other person, and the other one doesn't want it to happen, and they are trying to distance themselves from the other person in the situation. Taylor swift does typically do this in all of her music videos, because she likes the fact that her audience can relate to her and her music, people are more likely to listen to her music if they can relate. The audience could feel that they know Taylor on a more personal level by watching her videos and listening to her music. 

This story does obviously match the lyrics, right down to the phone call at 2:20, the music stops to hear what the character has to say, this shows that the lyrics and the story match perfectly, and they rely on each other to put the story across. 

This screenshot allows the audience to get excited and dance around, the narrative at this point shows that she's having a party and that she almost feels like she's free and happy without the boy again. 

But then this shot shows a complete contrast to the previous shot because it explains to the audience how she is feeling, and when he turns up at her door, it almost ruins everything, her mood, and the fact that she thought she was through with him and that he was leaving her alone.

This part of the video is straight after the door scene and she's walking back into the room where the party was in the previous screenshot, this is because him being there has totally made her good mood go away, and she is no longer in the mood to party, she just wants to sit at the window and think like she does in the next few seconds of this video.  

These two parts of the video are almost identical, except for the fact that in one its the morning and in the other its night time, this could be because after everything that's happened not even she is believing the words coming out of her mouth, she wants to but she can't help the way that she feels. Its showing that everything ended up the way it started in the first place. 

Conceptual - This type of video is to show metaphors that create a mood or offer multiple meanings. Conceptual means something that is based on mental concepts, this would simplify to based on whatever the specific person wanted it to be or wanted it to relate to.
It can symbolise some things to one person and then a completely different thing for someone else. 


In the video above by Gotye, not many props are used, just the use of paints and different colours which could represent his mood as all of the colours around him are dull and boring, but then when the camera zooms out at 2:26 to reveal the girl standing backwards it reveals that she is more brightly coloured and this could show that every story has two sides and that they both feel completely different about the same situation. Even though the storyline is the same as many pop videos, the video comes across differently to the same audience.


Steve Archer Steve Archer said in 2004 that 'Often music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist's performance. Sometimes the artist will be part of the story, acting as a narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip synch close up and the miming of the playing instruments that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it.' 


Performances can be one of these three but also a variety of one or more of them as well: 

- Performance Clip - a performance clip contains mostly filmed performance, a performance clip is when the artist is shown in a few different settings, common places for this are recording studios, rehearsal rooms, clubs and even as simple as walking down the street, anywhere that is classed as a different location can be used in a performance clip.
A performance can then be broken down into three categories:
 - Song Performance: Almost every music video would be a song performance, but song performance is commonly combined with dance performance to create a fun and hip music video. 
 - Dance Performance: When a lot of dance sequences are used in a video. 
 - Instrumental Performance: This type of performance is not so common but a music video would be classed as instrumental if it is a 'concert clip' this is when concert footage is used in a music video. 

- Narrative Clip - A narrative clip contains a story that is easy to follow, a 'pure' narrative clip is when there is no lip-synchronized singing. The above video for Bruce Springsteen's 'I'm on Fire' is an example of a pure narrative clip.

- Art Clip - If a music video clip contains no perceptable visual narrative and contains no lip-synchronized singing then it is a pure art clip. The main difference between a music video art clip and a contemporary artistic video is the music. While the music video uses popular music the artistic video uses more modern, experimental music, such as electro-acoustic music.

Karlson

Karlson believed that there are three types of artist:
Commercial exhibitionist, Televised Bard and Electronic Sharman. 

A commercial exhibitionist - this is an artist that likes to be in the foreground of the video at all times, they are the singer and dancer throughout, there may be backup dancers or other people involved, but they will always be the main person involved in the story, they are dramatic and over the top. Jessie J would be this type of artist as she is always in her videos and she is always the main person involved in any stories that are being acted out or shown in any way.

Even though in the video above Jessie is not the main character, she is meant to be the little girl, the main character is her as a child, this is the same thing as her being the main character, no matter how she does it, Jessie always manages to make her videos original and different from the rest out there, using a mini her in this one is a new way of her being in the limelight. 

Televised Bard - This type of artist is normally more shy than a commercial exhibitionist and likes to just show off their music for what they want it to mean and for what they want to show, they don't like to steal the limelight away from the music. A narrative is commonly used for this type of artists videos, this is to link the lyrics in with a story to show the meaning off further. An example of this type of artist would be Ed sheeran as he likes to use narratives in his videos to show off the true meaning of the song.


This video for 'A Team' shows a young lady that is obviously having a rough time and the lyrics in the song execute the meaning of the video further, Ed obviously thought him being a big part of the video would take away from the story behind the lyrics. 

Electronic Sharman - This is when the music is played over images of things that might not even have anything to do with the lyrics, the artist might not be seen at all during the video, this may mean that they're shy or that they just don't want to be in a music video.