Narrative, Performance based and concept based music video analysis

I have found that there are 3 main types of music videos: Narrative based, Performance based and Concept based.

Narrative based music videos have a storyline, and tend to follow that storyline throughout the whole of the video. Notable uses of narrative based music videos are Aha's "Take On Me" video and Bon Jovi's "Always" video.

Aha - Take On Me

This video has a storyline consisting of a woman in a coffee shop reading a comic book about competitive motorcycle racing in which the hero is pursued by two villains. After the woman recieves the bill for her coffee from a waitress, the winner of the race winks at the girl from the comic book and reaches his hand out for her to enter his animated world. As the waitress comes back to pick up the bill she thinks the woman has left without paying, and angrily crumples up the comic book and throws it in the bin. The crumpled pages lead to the two motorcycle villains to crossing over into the panels containing the motorcycle race winner and the girl. This leads to a struggle between the hero and the villains, of which the girl eventually escapes by the hero tearing a hole in one of the comic book pages so she can get out. She reappears on the floor in the coffee shop and takes the comic book home, trying to flatten out the pages to see what happens next. One of the pages shows the hero seemingly dead, and the girl begins to cry. The hero then wakes up and begins throwing himself against the edges of the panel of the comic book's page, attempting to break out into the real world. As he does this, he begins to flash between animation and a real, living person. The real life version of him appears in the hallway leading to the girl's room, throwing himself against the corridor walls. He finally escapes from the comic book by becoming human and embraces the girl.

This video is not restricted to just being narrative based though, as there are some scenes of the band performing in the narrative setting and as the hero is played by the bands lead singer he tends to lip sync to the song during some of the narrative parts of the story. As the song goes on, the drawn animated images tend to become more fast paced to go along with the fast pace of the song and the urgency of the situation where there is the struggle between the hero and the two villains. This is a very unique narrative based video as it is mostly animated in a comic book fashion and tends to mix this with live action scenes, something that around the time of the videos release had never been done before and therefore it gained many awards and was seen as a revolutionary music video.

Bon Jovi - Always

This video follows the storyline of a man looking back on his past relationship. The opening scene shows us the man lying on his bed looking at a picture of his ex girlfriend. The video then flashbacks to what his relationship was like before and how he cheated on his girlfriend with her friend/roommate. His girlfriend then runs away and seeks comfort with another man who paints her and she ends up sleeping with him, the girlfriend then calls up her boyfriend to come and get her from this mans apartment. When the boyfriend comes to pick her up they initially reconcile but after he finds the picture the man painted of his girlfriend he starts trashing his apartment, much to his girlfriends distress who ends up leaving him for good. The boyfriend then continues to set the apartment on fire and leaves, walking past a crowd of onlookers, firemen and the man whose apartment it was. We then go back to present day, where the boyfriend is standing in his room and sees his ex girlfriend standing by the door, he goes to touch her face but the image of her fades away and he realises her image was just in his imagination.

This video, much like the "Take On Me" video also shows shots of the band performing the song, and Jon Bon Jovi himself lip syncing along to the song. The video has an almost cinematic feel, or comes across much like an episode of a tv show as it follows a heavy narrative and comes across as realistic, unlike the "Take On Me" video. This video also seems to match the lyrics of the song, as the song is about a man who has broken up with his girlfriend and is saying he misses her and will always love her, much like what is depicted in the video. Again, this video the action in this video also tends to get more intense as the song gets more intense, such as when the boyfriend is trashing the apartment/sets it on fire we get to the climax of the song where Jon Bon Jovi's singing gets more intense and louder. Also, when the boyfriend walks past the man whose apartment it is after he leaves the image is slowed down as the look at each other, which adds to the tension.

Performance based videos tend to show the band or artists mostly performing there song, possibly at a gig or in a studio setting. Two videos that use this kind of video are Green Day's "American Idiot" and Saving Aimee's "Fresh Since '88"

Green Day - American Idiot

This video is made up almost completely of shots showing the band performing the song, or Billie Joe lip syncing to the song along with playing the guitar. However, they have made the video interesting and not just used a standard performance by making each band member perform the song at a different speed, such as Billie Joe performing the song sped up whilst Tre Cool is playing the drums at normal speed, etc. This alternates between band members throughout the video and gives the video an individual, creative edge. There is also a theme of the colour green throughout the video, supposedly to go along with the bands name "Green Day". As this is a theme throughout the video it gets stuck in the viewers mind and reminds them of the bands name. There is also an American flag behind the band members as they are performing the song, this is used in an ironic way as the song is about not wanting to be an American idiot. The flag is also green which goes along with the theme of green in the video but also contrasts with the usual red white and blue, making it seem like it is decaying which could also go along with the lyrics which promote a bad view of what America has become. Being a highly political song, Green Day have chosen to use rapid fast paced shots to show their individuality and this promotes anarchy, this is also shown when they smash their instruments at the end of the video which shows their sense of rebellion, which contrasts with the view of what America is today.

Saving Aimee - Fresh Since 88

This video is completely performance based, showing only shots of the band performing throughout. The colouring of the video is black and white which makes it stand out and sticks in peoples minds as usually videos are in colour, especially Saving Aimee's other videos such as "We're The Good Guys" which is full of bright colours. There are a range of fast paced shots that seem to go in time with the music and close ups of the band members which shows they want this video to just focus on the music and the band. However, to make this video different from normal performance based videos it has a range of special effects such as splashes of light that look like water/paint coming from the drums at the beginning of the video as the drummer hits them and sparks of light coming from the machine heads of the guitars as they move. This catches the viewers eye and makes the video more interesting and makes people want to watch more. The lead singer of the band is has also got a line of face paint on his cheek, which gives the look of the band a sort of 80's feel as the song itself has an 80's sound.

Concept based music videos tend to have no storyline, they are generally a random concept and sometimes tends to not tie in with the band or theme of the song at all. A video that is concept based is OK GO's "Here It Goes Again".

OK GO - Here It Goes Again

This video shows the band performing a dance routine on 6 treadmills, a very original and abstract idea that has never been done before for a music video. It would have had to be shot in one take for continuity, which would have put pressure on the band members to not make any mistakes. The routine is flawless in the video, apart from at about 1 minute in where the man on the front left treadmill starts to fall off, but it is barely noticeable as he recovers well. Another point in the video that could have been as mistake is the very beginning where the man is trying to turn on the CD player and it wont work, however this could have been a deliberate mistake to add humour to the video. The routine is in time with the music and the band tend to do tricks in their routine at key points during the song, making the routine more catchy and eye grabbing, making viewers want to keep watching. This concept was a very simple, yet effective video and soon became a viral hit, giving the band much promotion and success.

What I would do:

As I am in the midst of choosing my artist, I am currently unsure as to what kind of music video I would like to make as it would depend on the song. However I am interested in doing a narrative music video, as I have found through talking to people that they prefer music videos that follow a story or have some deeper meaning to them. Then again, I have found that concept based music videos tend to be more successful and end up going viral (as seen with OK GO) and therefore create a bigger fan base for the band/artist. I feel that concept based videos are also more creative and original, so this may be a path I end up going down. I would like to find a way to mix these two kinds of videos, but this will take extra research and finding the artist and song I will be using in order to come up with an idea to make this work.