TYPES AND STYLES

OF
MUSIC
By Anushe Akbar
■ Music videos follow certain conventions to allow institutions to meet audience
expectations.
Three visual traditions are most commonly followed;
- A film singer/band
-Insert images/ videos shots
-Experimental film tradition
■ Conventionally music videos are supposed to depict the meaning of the lyric; Andrew
Goodwin states 3 approaches to this.
■ Lyrics in music videos:
-Illustrate
-Amplify
-Disjuncture
 Types of music Styles of music
Performances based Animation
Narrative based Interpretive
Conceptual/ Artist based Impressionist
Surrealist
Inter-textuality
Allusion
Performance based music video
Singing
Concert and live footage
Instrumental
Dance

Sven Caslsson Theory

A performance heavily focuses on the artist. There are characteristics carisson believes are present in all music videos of this
category:
■ The commercial exhibitionist- willing to sell their images/style/selves for money and fame
■ The televised band- A narrator or singing storyteller. Creation of poetry between images.
■ The electronic shaman- embodies different characters and shifts to be part pf different scenes.
Narative based music video
■ Almost like a silent story to a musical background
■ Contains a visual story
■ No lip synchronized singing

Various forms of narrative:

■ Linear
■ Non- linear
■ Broken

Narrative Theories
■ Levi Strauss- binary opposition theory
■ Todorov- equilibrium theory
■ Cameo performance- is a brief appearance or voice part of a well known person in a work of the performing arts, typically
unnamed or appearing as themselves. For example Tyler Posey in the music video of Colors by Halsey
Conceptual & Artistic based music video
■ Conceptual music videos are based around a single concept or idea
■ Could be abstracted or artistic
■ Mostly polysemic (open ended)
■ Artistic music videos are usually about being abstract and imaginative
■ These are open to interpretation
■ These videos can be symbolic(used to build meaning)
Styles of music videos

■ Animation- 2D and 3D animation and effects

■ Interpretive- how the viewer interprets the music video
■ Impressionist- Making a fantasy, taking the audience away from reality
■ Surrealist- unreal elements, dream like
■ Inter-textuality- one media text is referred to another
1. Pastiche
2. Parody

■ Allusion - keeping the audience curious

Interpretive
The music video for Sia's song Electric Heart interpretive.
Different people may view it from different perspectives thus giving it objectivity to what
the content of the videos actually means.
From some it may be holding onto their childhood, dealing with internal struggles and
so on
Impressionist
This style of music can be used to make the audience feel a certain way by creating meaning and
representing emotions or ideologies.

The video may represent the song and lyric to help understand what the song is about.

The A Team by Ed Shareen narrates the story of homeless girl who sleeps with strangers to get
money for drugs and eventually dies of an overdose.
The whole video is black and white to give it a gloomy effect and the video narrative goes
according to the lyrics of the song itself.
Surrealist
Little Talks by Monsters And Mean falls in this category.
The music video shows a fantasy dream like story involving sky sailors, a beautiful female
creature who fights off a two headed bird, a sea monster and what not.
It takes the viewers away from reality using unreal elements and creates and creates a whole
new world for them to perceive through the video.
Inter-textuality
One of the best examples of inter-textuality in music videos is Dani California by Red Hot Chili
Peppers where they dress up and act like poplar musical bands and artists as they perform their
song.

Artists they feature in their video includes Elvis, The Beatles, The misfits, Nirvana, Greenday,
Prince and many others.
Allusion
Take me to church by Hozier brings an element of curiosity as the video starts with a
man burying a box wrapped in chains.
Through the course of the video it is given due importance but the audience is never
shown what is inside and in the end the box is thrown into fire and the audience will
never find out what was in the box