Categories of Music Videos

There are three main categories of music videos, these are as followed:

 Performance

 Narrative

 Concept

Performance

Performance music videos are those which showcase the artist or band performing the song throughout the majority of the video. These types of music videos can occasionally feature separate footage other than the group performing however this isn’t very common and the amount of footage would be miniscule compared to that of the artist or band performing. Performance music videos can easily be created on a low budget.

Genres commonly linked with performance music videos include:

- Rock (Sub-Genres included, e.g. Metal)

- Hip-Hop / Rap

- RnB

Iron Maiden - 'Fear of the Dark' is a good example of a performance music video.

Narrative

Narrative music videos focus on telling a story. The story created will usually link with the lyrics however this is not always the case.  The artist or band can be part of the story however actors are also used in narrative music videos. Again like performance music videos these can occasionally cut back to feature the band or artist however this will not be as much as the footage which is telling the story.

Genres commonly linked with narrative music videos include:

- Rock (Sub-Genres included, e.g. Metal)

- RnB

Rihanna - 'Man Down' is a controversial music video which is mainly a narrative video. 

Concept

Concept music videos are those that attempt to base themselves to one theme or concept, as the name would indicate. The artist or band will not be featured much or even at all in a concept music video. Sometimes what is in the videos itself is not the concept instead the concept could be the editing technique.

There is no specific genre that focus on making concept music videos as they are not particularly common and can be used by a variety of different music genres.