Music video as a form: performance, narrative and concept

Overview

Recall questions on performance, narrative and concept music videos and why most are hybrids, lip sync, Goodwin's account of lyrics, visuals and the form, cutting to the beat, elliptical editing, withheld closure, direct address, intertextuality and animation.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is a performance music video?

   Model answer

   One built around footage of the artist delivering the track, using staging, lighting and camerawork to sell the performance and the performer rather than to tell a story.

2. 2

   What is a narrative music video?

   Model answer

   One that tells a story in images alongside or instead of performance, so the audience follows characters and events across the length of the track.

3. 3

   Define the concept music video.

   Model answer

   One organised around a visual idea, aesthetic or metaphor rather than a story or a performance, in which imagery, choreography or effects carry the meaning.

4. 4

   Why are most music videos hybrids of more than one of these approaches?

   Model answer

   Performance sells the artist while narrative or concept holds attention, so producers combine them to do both within the running time of a single track.

5. 5

   Explain what lip sync contributes to a music video.

   Model answer

   Miming the vocal ties the artist's body to the sound, confirms ownership of the track, and gives the editor a fixed point to cut around.

6. 6

   What did Andrew Goodwin argue about the relationship between a song's lyrics and a video's images?

   Model answer

   He argued that visuals can illustrate the lyrics, amplify them by adding meaning, or contradict them, and that a video normally does one of the three.

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