Music videos and the three visual relations to songs

There are 3 main ways in which music videos promote songs, these are:
· Illustration
· Amplification
· Disjuncture

· Music videos can be used to illustrate the lyrics or the narrative of a song. It is the most straightforward and simple technique when producing music videos as everything within it is based around the song and the narrative. A good example of this is the song ‘Her Morning Elegance’ by Oren Lavie, at about 31 seconds into the video there is a string part, and this is accompanied by a cello moving in stop motion style for the entirety of the string section, therefore the images are accompanying the sounds within the song.

· Amplification is a technique used to enhance or ‘amplify’ the themes within a song and use the music video to develop them while still retaining that crucial link to the song itself. It is seen as the true mark of an auteur and proves the director to be a creative and imaginative one while still able to maintain a viable concept. A good example of a video that employs amplification would be ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ by Daft Punk, as the video itself retains a link to the song and its concept, while using animation by manga artist Leiji Matsumoto to amplify the notion.

· Disjuncture is when the video that accompanies a song is in no way related to the music or lyrics of a song in any way. The concept would be completely random and very often featuring abstract imagery, usually a technique employed by arty bands that want to emphasize their originality and apparent lack of need to ‘fit in’. Red Hot Chili Peppers video for ‘Can’t stop’ is a perfect example of a disjuncture video as its inspired by the ‘One minute sculptures by Erwin Wurm’ and that it features many completely random images such as, Anthony Kiedis wearing a tent, Flea playing with stationary and sticking it to his face and John Frusciante playing his guitar in a room filled with lights that synchronize with the rhythm he is playing.