What is the purpose of a music video?

Music videos are incredibly popular and are beneficial for multiple reasons. One of the biggest reasons artists have music videos for their music is to promote, advertise and sell the song. If there was no music video, there would be a limited number of ways to advertise the track (such as on the radio) where as if there is a video to go with the track then it can be advertised on television, on website adverts (Youtube is a main source for this) and a much wider variety of places, therefore gaining maximum audiences.

Another main purpose for music videos to create an appeal with the audience by creating something memorable for them. A lot of songs nowadays are remembered by their music videos. For example the song and music video made by 'OK GO' it is called 'Here it goes again'. It sticks in the audiences mind as slightly comical and different, this may not positively affect the audiences opinion on the song however it does stick in their mind which is the idea of a unique video like this. The video is one of the most watched videos on Youtube with over 52 million views, this proves this unique video was a huge success.

 

The music video can also be seen as a narrative for the song. Sometimes audiences don't fully understand the story within a song through the lyrics and so it is beneficial to have the visual aids helping narrate the story. 

A great example of this would by in the music video for the song 'Writing's On The Wall' by Plan B. The music video and arguably the song is based around the incident of a man named Strickland Banks where he cheats on his partner with a woman. Without the visual aids in the music video, it would be extremely difficult to associate the song with the specific incident of Strickland Banks and even the topic of cheating.