Below are the general features of music videos split up into categories.
Editing Techniques and Use of digital effects
Most music videos follow standard continuity of logical time order shown in screen. Depending on the song itself, takes may be longer or shorter. Often when the singer is singing towards the camera, the shot lingers on them for a longer amount of time as is the case in Coldplay's "Scientist". "Scientist" is also in reverse chronology to develop the meaning of the lyrics by showing how the car collision is a metaphor for the lyrics that is revealed by the end of the video. In some music videos, the shots are inter cut between the singer and the topic/person that they are singing about (which is often used in songs about relationships).
In Busted's "Year 3000", there is the use of live-action imagery and also digital animation when the band travel to the year 3000. This draws the contrast between present day and the future that contains abnormal animation around the real-life actors. The bright colors and unique style art of the animation also further contrasts the two.
Some music videos use other pieces of media to support themselves such as Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again ft. Charlie Puth" that is a part of the soundrtack for the 2015 film "Furious 7". This video is intercut with imagery from the film and also has links to the real life death of Paul Walker giving meaning to the lyrics.
Elton John's "I Want Love" (starring Robert Downey Jr.) is all a one-shot which adds a unique element to the video through its use of editing. The almost 5 minute video is also slow in pace allowing the long take to last even longer.
Costume/Hair/ Make up
In music videos, costume, hair and make-up vary dramatically yet follow some generalities. Music videos starring women commonly have them wearing quite heavy make-up. In Britney Spear's "...Baby One More Time" Spear's is wearing a dark lipstick, blusher and eye shadow. This quantity is often considered to be quite excessive. Spear's ponytails (including colorful ties and pink fluffy accessories) and earrings also add to quite a 'made up' character that has spent time preparing herself. Spear's is also dawning a school uniform. This is abnormal for an adult as that is clothing often attributed to children attending high school (to whom her hairstyle is also attributed to stereotypically). However, the school uniform is not a standard uniform as Spear's is wearing a revealing shirt that is knotted and low-cut black stockings with a visible break between her skirt and the stockings where her upper leg is revealed. This is common of music videos portraying women as women are often sexualized (although the use of recognized children's clothing is less common as it has controversial links to encouraging pedaphilia).
In some instances, the narrative or setting influence the make-up, hair and costume
such as in Katy Perry's "Dark Horse". In this video, Katy Perry is wearing heavy Egyptian-like eyeliner, pink lipstick, braided shoulder length hair and wearing a colorful half-modern and half- Egyptian style clothing. This variation is mainly influenced by the ancient Egyptian setting of the music video that sees modern influence brought in to add a unique style to the video.
In terms of men in music videos, they are often dressed in what would be considered normal clothing without any overt sexualization of themselves. For example, in The Wanted's "All Time Low", the band that are performing in the video are wearing quite substandard clothing. For example, 3 of the singers appear to be wearing standard jeans and the other two are wearing beige pants. The singers are also wearing t-shirts and shirts with longer sleeves with no obvious sexualization apart from a partly open shirt which is only slightly sexually suggestive. The band also have quite average male haircuts that vary from extremely short to slightly 'shaggy' but nothing abnormal at all. The singers also do not appear to have any obvious amounts of make-up on apart from minimal amount like skin colored lipstick to add a tad bit of color to the actors.
Mise en Scene, Shot Types, audience and performance space
In music videos, performance space is used to allow the actor to sing and be a central vocal point of the music video. Sometimes, these are open areas that allow the video to appear almost as if the singer is not so much 'performing' but instead are singing more about their personal emotions without caring who's watching them. This is present in Taylor Swift's "I knew You Were Trouble" where Swift is able to use the setting of an after-party in a desert to sing about her ceased relationship. It should also be noted the use of mise en scene in this video where the red cup on the floor behind Swift's character reinforces the fact that this was the location of a party.
In Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A.", she uses multiple performance spaces that include an exterior drive-in theater, on a stage, in front of a metal wall and in a night time setting standing on a swing.
The night time setting is a reference to a scene from the 1978 scene Grease where John Travolta's character sings the song "Sandy". This supports Andrew Goodwin's theory about the features of music videos about how there are intertextual references in music videos.
Cyrus' cowboy boots also are used as an element of mise en scene as well as the American flag that are both referenced in the lyrics with the boots as "kick's" and the flag present when singing about the "U.S.A.". Cyrus also has a literal stage as she performs on a stage in front of the American flag.
In Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie ft. Rihanna" his performance space is an open corn field that helps to contrast the trapped mentality of the characters he is singing about. This is used in music videos to bring perspective to the message and emphasize it.
Mise en scene is shown when the lyrics "watch me burn" are used as they link to the fire physically present in the video in the back of the shot behind Rihanna. This links to Andrew Goodwin's features of music videos that there is a relationship between the lyrics in a music video and its visuals.
Music videos are aimed at a wide range of audiences. One main audience focus is males when there is sexual exploitation of a woman in a video. This is done in videos like Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head". In videos with boy bands such as One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful", the audience is primarily young teenage girls. With most of these videos, there are often a large use of tight frames on the star's face and body as well as wider shots to establish locations and settings.
Sound
In music videos, the primary sound is the music itself that is often being sung by its artist. This is evident in videos such as Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (left) and Owl City's Fireflies where the artists perform their own song in the music video.
However, the singer is not always the artist. In the music video "This is What You Came For", the artist is Calvin Harris yet the singer in the music video is Robyn Fenty (Better known as Rihanna).
Also in music videos, there are other sources of sound such as voice-overs. This is present in Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" where roughly the first two minutes are of Taylor Swift talking over different pieces of imagery. Other music videos may also include other non-song uses of sound that are only present in the music video whilst other music videos may just be imagery that links with the music.
Often, songs in music videos are treated as digetic sound where the characters in the video are aware and interact with the music.
However, some music videos contain music where the artists sing the song and then this is placed over imagery without the artists singing the song directly to the camera. This happens in the Beastie Boy's "Sabotage" where their music is placed over imagey that is a homage and parody of 1970s crime drama shows such as Hawaii Five-O and Starsky and Hutch. The music video is presented as the opening credits to a 1970s-style police show named as the the title of the song where the band memebers star in the video.
Narrative, Lyrical meanings and Tone of Song and Video
Often the narrative of music videos are of the topic of love and relationships. This is present in such music videos as Coldplay's "Scientist" about a broken relationship that has a very mellow tone as the singer is trying to analyze their relationship. Often, music videos do not contain an overly complex narrative with just a person singing towards the camera and most meaning present in the lyrics as is the case in Coldplay's "Scientist". However, other music videos are more narratively focused with less attention generally taken to the lyrics.
In Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie ft. Rihanna", Eminem and Rihanna are singing to each other but actually on b
ehalf of the other characters also present in the music video and are singing about a destructive relationship with supporting imagery. This video has a contrast in tone with the soft tone sung about the positive parts of the relationship by Rihanna and then the negative parts rapped by Eminem in a far harsher tone.
In The Wanted's "All Time Low", the lyrics are about either depression or to rising from the difficulty of having someone special to you be constantly on your mind depending on the inference. The music video is lacking a notable narrative with just the band singing towards the camera but does include fireworks at one point.
In Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit", the tone is extremely dark and harrowing with contrasting positive lyrics such as: "It's fun to lose and to pretend", In this music video, the song's narrative is quite nonsensical with the video taking place in what appears to be a basement space where people are simply listening to and dancing to the band Nirvana. The lyrics are extremely vague but have been inferred to be about a revolution by teens or at least the idea enjoyed by that potentiality.
The band 'Foster the People' often create more narrative focused music videos. This is evident in "Don't Stop (Color on the Walls)" that is about driving exam where it turns out that the instructor is actually a criminal and then a police chase ensues. In another one of their music videos titled "Houdini" where a boy band are killed in an on-stage accident and then have their bodies turned into robots allowing them to perform on stage. These narratives are far less serious and take precedent over the song's lyrics.
Some music videos contain both notable narratives and strong lyrical meanings. This is present in Outkast's "Hey Ya" where the lyrics have been inferred as being about a marriage falling apart because he and his wife don't love each other anymore. In this music video, the narrative is about Andre 3000 and 7 other clones of himself performing on stage in London for a group of ethnically diverse women. The video mimicks the Beatle's 1964 performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The tone of the video is extremely postive and uplifting despite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c745E7T_Wvg
the overly dark lyrics. The primary singer, Andre 3000, recognizes that nobody is really listening to the lyrics and even says "Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance." as he understands how the tone of the video overcomes the negative message in the lyrics. For a better representation of the lyrics, Obadiah Parker's cover of the song is useful:
