Concept Music Videos Research

Concept music videos are usually based around a single concept or idea and are often obscure and unusual, creating an interesting and memorable viewing experience for the audience. Concept music videos are usually combined with other styles of music video such as performance or narrative to ensure mainstream success and so as not to alienate the general public. Concept music videos are not specific to certain genres, and artists across many different styles of music have been known to use videos of this type.

Some examples of concept music videos are...

Blink-182- I Miss You

Nirvana- Heart-Shaped Box

Fall Out Boy- American Beauty/American Psycho

Most concept videos contain performance aspects, showing the band or artist lip synching/performing in between the more conceptual shots of the video. This is usually done in order to appeal to the audience more. If the video is too obscure, while it will keep the viewer's attention, it is unlikely to appeal to a more mainstream audience. An example of this is Taylor Swift's 'Style' music video- the artist is featured throughout, and as Taylor Swift is extremely well known, a mainstream audience would feel a sense of familiarity whilst watching this video. In videos such as 'Best of You' by Foo Fighters and 'Heart-Shaped Box' by Nirvana, the artists are featured in the video, but not as prominently. Shots of the bands performing are included in the videos in between conceptual aspects and shots, so the band retain their artistic vision whilst still acknowledging a mainstream audience.    

Taylor Swift-Style

Foo Fighters-Best of You

Nirvana- Heart-Shaped Box

Sometimes artists are not featured at all in conceptual music videos, in order to ensure that the focus is entirely on whatever theme or message the artist is trying to convey. Queen's 'Under Pressure' music video includes clips from the 1900s, showing events such as buildings collapsing and large crowds of people next to unemployment signs. The band used these clips to reflect the lyrics in the song, and were not featured in the video to demonstrate how important the concept of the video was to them. 'American Beauty/American Psycho' by Fall Out Boy is another example of a concept music video where the artist is not featured.

Queen- Under Pressure

Fall Out Boy- American Beauty/American Psycho

Most conceptual music videos contain thematic elements, which are portrayed through the mise-en-scene of the video. Colours, costumes and settings can be used to demonstrate genre and meaning of a music video, and can also help the audience to understand the meaning of a song. An example of using thematic elements in a concept music video is My Chemical Romance's 'I Don't Love You'. The props, costumes and setting are all black, grey or white, as the video has a black and white filter. This helps the audience to get an idea of the tone and mood of the song as the video enhances these things.

My Chemical Romance- I Don't Love You