Types of Music Video

Performance

Performance based music videos are based on the artist or band performing to the audience through the directing the song towards to camera or to a live audience.  This technique of shooting a music video is usually preferred amongst rock bands and artists because of the high energy levels that most of the songs usually entail.  The live concert idea, is usually  much more appealing to the audience when they are watching the video.  A good example of this type of high energy performance video is 'Do or Die - 30 Seconds to Mars'

Narrative

A narrative based music video is usually the band or artist trying to tell a story through the video and lyrics.  This type of music video is a lot more developed when it comes to engaging the audience because it draws them in more to the story behind the song.  I think that this type of music video is better to use if it is a slow song and you want to keep all of the attention on what is going on in the video and also in the song.  This is probably the most widely used method of creating music videos, especially when it comes to popular pop artists such as Katy Perry and Bruno Mars.  A good example of a narrative music video, would be Taylor Swift's 'Begin Again'.

Conceptual

These types of music videos are usually based around one very specific idea and are generally a quite unusual way to go about portraying the song through the music video.  Most videos however, do not consist of one simple idea, there is usually a lot more thought to the video that one simple idea.  I think that conceptual music videos are usually much more developed once they are created because they have strong themes and ideas behind them.  Sometimes if the song is based on one particular theme that recurs throughout the song, then a conceptual music video would be perfect to showcase the song. A good example of a conceptual music video is Oren Lavie's 'Her Morning Elegance'.