What is a Music Video?

A music video is a short film that is in motion to fit perfectly a specific song. A common music video has either different shots that have a certain meaning behind them to do with the music track, animation or completely non-narrative approaches. The music video is also often used to promote the artist or a specific brand's product. For example, in the music video 'Party Rock Anthem' by LMFAO, there is a short shot of the 'Beats' headphones. This is effective as the song was a huge song and moved to 1st place in the 'Official UK Top 40 Charts' for a few weeks it would encourage viewers to want to buy them as they have appeared on television.

For a music video to suit the song choice by the artist, the shots used have to be relevant to tempo of the track. For example a fast paced song must have fast paced images with rapid editing so that it is upbeat. If the editing did not match the song tempo then it would look out of place and would not create an effective music video. Iconography determined by the genre will also play a large part in the video to express something or someone.