Narrative and performance

Music videos and the songs that they are based around, rarely have a complete or full narrative. Both will usually hint at a story or some form of drama unfolding, but will not tell the entirety of the story; again both the video and the song will usually conclude with a striking ending. The main reason music videos steer clear of conventional storytelling or narrative approach is due to advertising and how this links with repeatability; music videos need to be repeatable so that they can be shown and enjoyed in a much more casual way, so this is achieved by using a much more ‘loose’ approach to storytelling.
A frequently used technique within music videos is to cut between the ‘narrative’ and the band performing. In some genres such as R’n’B and dance music there is often choreographed pieces of dance performed by the artist. The singer of the band who is generally regarded as the most important member, often plays the role of narrator and the lead character within this loosely narrated story.

The essential element of any music video still remains the lip syncing and pretending to perform on their instruments, making the audience presume that they actually are performing. This mimed performance is a key convention of rock videos as we know them as many rock videos are built around this ‘performance’.