Music Video Concepts: 9 Creative Concepts For You

A picture of a video camera with someone playing the guitar in front of it: Music Video Concepts
Image by Kyle Loftus from Pexels

Do you want to shoot a video for your song but seem to lack ideas of what to do? Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. We understand and know how coming up with music video concepts can be challenging. It can be as challenging as any other creative art form. But, the truth is that you’ll get better at it over time. The more you dig deep, the better the ideas you stand to get. However, if you’re new to the game, you may need some handouts, and we’ll do just that in the following paragraphs of this article. 

Bear in mind that the purpose of a music video is to market your songs and brand as an artist. So, how you market your brand rests so much on the ideas you generate. Simply put, music videos are a big part of music and highlight your career as an artist. Maybe that’s why creating one can be daunting. Most musicians only want to focus on making sounds and try as much to avoid touching the challenge of creating music videos. But, the truth is that you can’t do without them. They can bring a new perspective and visibility—hopefully—to your music career.

In this article, we explore the following areas:

  • Categories of Music Videos 
  • 9 Creative Concepts for Your Next Video

Categories of Music Videos 

When designing your music videos and developing music video concepts, the primary step is determining the type of video you want to create. Your answer to this self query will determine your next course of action and the channel of ideas. If we are to categorize music videos, we have something like;

Performance Videos

Video-based on you performing your song, sometimes live, are the ones in this category. It could be at a gig, but not necessarily. It’s not also compulsory that you have your fan live in the performance. You could stage a session at the studio, in a garage, or anywhere pleasant. It could even be in an unusual place. However, keep in mind that the tone of the video has to match that of the song.

If you would like to see an example of this category, check out the music video of “Smells like Teen Spirit “by Nirvana. How they performed the song in front of a crowd of teens staged to be in a riot. Kimbra and Gotye did another variation of this type of music video by using colors combined with the expression of singers, and the music video turned out to be Australia’s most viewed music video. 

Narrative Videos

A music video that portrays a story as suggested by the song lyrics or realistically featured in the lyrics is called a narrative music video. This is because they explain a song visually so listeners can relate to it and understand it better. Most times, they are not a literal representation of the lyrics; they only depict or express the intent behind the song. 

If you need an example of this, take a look at the famous song by Michael Jackson, the one he titled “Thriller,” yes! That’s a perfect example of a narrative music video. Lift by Radiohead also serves as a perfect example. However, note that many of these narrative music videos still had parts where the artist performed the song. The summation is that a narrative video will find a way to blend visuals and symbolism in a way that the tone of the song remains satisfied. 

Conceptual Videos

You could also choose to go utterly conceptual about your music video instead of following a narrative or connecting it explicitly to the song lyrics’ narrative. In this category, there is no limit to what you can choose to do. You could choose to go with the song narrative and do it in a more surreal way, just as Katy Perry did with her “Chained to the Rhythm” music video—she’s good at being conceptual. You could also choose to be conceptual according to the genre of the music, such as what Miike Snow did with “Genghis Khan.”

9 Creative Music Video Concepts for Your Next Video

Now that we have discussed the type of music video you could choose to create, let’s look at some music video concepts that you can employ in your next video shoot. Since your video needs to be creative if it will give the desired effect, we can say that finding the best idea that will take your production to the next level is the key. Here are some ideas you can quickly implement;

Shoot the Video during the Golden Hour

When are the golden hours? That’s a term in the world of photography referring to the time just before sunset and right after sunrise. During this time, you will capture unique video content and present them in a warm tone. That’s because lighting is a vital tool in any shoot. When it comes to music videos, you can’t afford to miss those critical hours. At that time, the lighting you get is perfectly diffuse to help form a rich and warm video presentation. You might even, luckily, capture some lens flare while you shoot. The magic is to let the sun do the work on your behalf, and you’ll be amazed at what you’ll get.

Use Different Speeds to Record your footage.

Music recordings give room, in general, to disrupt conventional filmmaking rules in some ways, such as having the chance to record your video at variable speeds. We know from statistics how moderate movement makes an emotional impact. Recall that if your artist is singing along, you will require the tune’s speed to coordinate with this recording. Let the playback slow down a little for them to lip-sync as you shoot the shot. Accelerating your recording is another excellent and straightforward approach to add a desire to move quickly and cause drama to your music video. Playing with various speeds permits a bit of creative energy to radiate through the next video.

Design the show reveal

Shooting music videos also give room to slow reveal, which is another fantastic way to captivate your audience. You can set a shot tightly by only focusing on your singer’s face. Then, as the singer sings, pull out of the tight close-up—do it slowly and let it reveal that the singer isn’t alone, but they have other amazing things happening around them. It could be that the singer has around them a full band playing to the song, but the tight close-up makes it look like they were alone. It could also be that the background has a fantastic photo that has a close meaning to the song; in particular, when you pull out, and the viewers get to see the photo background, it becomes captivating. 

Create a one-shot video

This shooting system can be a problem, especially if you’re coming up in the music video system. However, it can constitute an intriguing way to thrill you, viewers. This system requires some master shooting skills and a cleaned execution from your musician and other artists. The extraordinary thing about the single-shot music video is that it requires just a single camera and one shooting area. 

You will only need to be moving in reverse with the camera. You will need to have an aide or a companion who will assist with directing you as you move.  The artist ought to be singing along while at the same time gazing straight into your camera. You don’t have to move to make a fantastic single-shot video—you can create the whole single shot with a stand. However, the impact of having the artist gaze straight into the camera for the short term can be significant.

Make use of the Green Screen.

This Music Video concept of the green screen is a new form of technology. It refers to having to shoot your music video in a place with a green background. You practically stay in a single place all through the time to take the shots and make all the movements you want with your artists. However, by the time they finish editing, you find an entire world around the singer and artists. That’s what a green background makes possible through advances in technology. The great thing about this concept is its versatility—it can practically work for any genre. The artist can shoot all the music videos in a room in the center of a city and find a whole ranch around them when the video is ready.

Add stop-motion form of animation.

The most common form of animation is the one that involves the song lyrics. But you can choose to use a different approach to it. However, what is certain is that, with animation, you have no limit to what you can do. Animation involves a lot of creativity, and it allows you to express yourself in ways that the classic music video will not let you. You can also depict actual and raw emotions with it. The best thing about it is that you only need to use your skill, sit before a computer and finish up the master art—it doesn’t require the usual kind of Hollywood budget we are fond of.

Use Drones

We are safe to categorize this system as a modern-day Music Video Concept. With drones, you get to shoot videos from different angles—most notably, getting to capture an aerial view.  Drone shooting creates impressive effects that can give your viewers a thrilling and action-packed video. It will show the actions fascinatingly. If you then combine it with a great location, perfect!

Ask people you know for ideas.

When you have no idea of what to do, we usually prefer to look to distant places for help when in actual sense, those around us might have great ideas on the issues at hand. So talk to the people around you, ask them to give you ideas for your next music video, and you’ll be surprised at the wealth of concepts they will throw at you.

Look at the Work of other Artists

There are millions of music videos already making waves out there. From them, you can get great ideas to use for your next music video concept. Though you have to be watchful of lifting ideas directly, you might get sued for idea theft. However, when you come across a concept that captivates you, find ways to tweak them and watch how it will quickly become yours. Hopefully, they drive the desired success.

Conclusion

Music video concepts can be challenging to develop, but they are not hard to come by. You can get an idea from anywhere around you. You only need to be attentive, and ideas will surely come to you. We’ve made suggestions on things you can do for your next music video. Check them out. We hope you find them helpful.

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