Types of Music Videos, With Examples
Most music videos are narrative, performance or concept based, or a mix of them. Some have no story at all and simply follow the sound. Here is how each type works, with a real example you can watch.
- Narrative
- Tells a story with characters and events, alongside the lyrics. Examples: Remember Home, The Place Where We Belong.
- Parallel stories and performance
- Several storylines cut together, with the artist performing between them. Example: Break the Distance.
- Concept
- Built around an idea and its symbols rather than a linear plot. Example: Wildlands.
- Sound-driven
- No story: the images follow the sound. Example: Whispers.
- Performance
- The artist singing or playing on camera. It often runs alongside a story, as in Break the Distance.
Other types of music videos
- Lyric video
- The words of the song on screen, often animated, sometimes over simple footage. Many artists release one before the official video.
- Animated
- Drawn, painted, stop motion or 3D. Animation lets a small team build worlds that would be impossible to film.
- Dance
- The choreography is the story. The camera follows the movement and the cuts follow the beat.
- One shot
- A single continuous take with no visible cuts. Everything has to happen in real time, which makes it hard to plan and memorable to watch.
- Live and behind the scenes
- Concert footage, studio sessions or a documentary look at how a song was made.
- Visualizer
- A loop or a moving image that follows the sound, often released for streaming platforms instead of a full video.
Many videos mix two or more types: Break the Distance mixes parallel stories with performance.