What is a music video?A music video is a short film used to accompany a piece of music, primarily to promote and market the sale of music recordings. However, they are sometimes created purely for an artistic purpose. They include a wide range of styles and film-making techniques including live filming, documenters, animation, narrative, performance, conceptual and abstract approaches. Some will fuse two different styles together or use multiple styles throughout, depending on the effect they wish to demonstrate.

One of the many theorists who studied music videos was Andrew Goodwin. Goodwin studied hundreds of music videos while researching his book and came up with some key codes and conventions that are shared by many music videos. The typical codes and conventions highlighted by Andrew Goodwin are:

1. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (with visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music).

2. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals (again with visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music)

3. Particular music genres have their own music video style and iconography (such as live performance in heavy rock or choreographed dance routines in RnB).

4. There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close-ups of the main artist/vocalist.

5. The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which, over time, becomes part of their star image.

6. There is likely to be reference to voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women, but also in terms of systems of looking (screens within screens, binoculars, film and movie camera, etc.).

7. There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts (this may or may not feature actors from the original film or TV programmes)

Gow (1992) identified six central genres of music videos all of which are defined in terms of their relationship to the display of the performance.

1. The anti-performance piece – videos which do not contain performance of the song.

2. Pseudo-reflexive performance – videos which display the process of video production.

3. Performance documentary – videos which contain verite documentary footage of onstage performance and/or offstage activity.

4. The special effects extravaganza – videos in which human performance is over shadowed by spectacular imagery.

5. The song and dance number – videos which focus on the physical ability of the dancing performer(s) and the vocal presentation of the song, usually through lip-synching techniques.

6. The enhanced performance – videos which blend performance elements with other visual elements, a blend justified through either associational, narrative, or abstract forms of motivation.

Lynch (1984) stated that there are three basic video structures.

1. Performance

2. Narrative

3. Concept (often influenced by experimental film)