Research: What is a Music Video?

 A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings.

Music videos are designed to capture the essence of an audio performance and interpret it visually. Some videos, particularly those created during the 1980s, do follow a relatively linear path, combining staged shots of the band in performance with a subplot based on the songs lyrics. Others use band members as actors in  the short film or leave the band out of the video entirely.