What is a Music Video?

A definition of a music video from Pete Fraser is "a short, moving image product, shot for the express purpose of accompanying a pre-existing music track and used to encourage sales of the music in another format".

There are key features of a music video which Andrew Goodwin identified in his book about the rise of MTV from 1992. These features are;

• There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The visuals will either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.
• There is a relationship between the music and the visuals. Again the visuals will either illustrate, amplify or contradict the music.
• Some particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography for their music videos.
• The video would include a lot of close ups of the main artist/ singer.
• There is likely to be reference to voyeurism within the video.
• There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos, to films or to TV.

Bands/ artistes use music videos to construct their image in how they would like to be seen and represented to their audience. The video is also used to help them sell their song to the audience, having the video as a form of promotion.