Sven E Karlsson and his Theory.

Sven E Karlsson is a 'music video theorist' who states that any music video falls into one of two categories. They are:

• Performance.
• Conceptual.

Performance:

A performance music video, as stated by Sven E Karlsson is classified as a music video where the artist/s are singing/dancing in their video. Some examples of a performance video are

• Dance Performance.
• Song Performance.
• Instrumental Performance.

A clear example of this is the video for 'Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)' by Beyonce, which shows the main artist and two extra women dancing in the music video. There is no narrative behind the video, other than the idea of 'performance'. The music video is also an example of what Karlsson calls 'commercial exhibitionist', where the artist is made into a selling item, where people aspire to be like the artist. Here in this video, Beyonce clearly sells herself to the public, giving them a desire to be like her.

Another example of a 'performance video' is a 'Televised Bard', where there is a 'singing storyteller'. The performance of a 'Televised Bard' is not made to impress, but creates and shows in a form of 'audio-visual' imagery and the creation of poetry within images. Sometimes, the 'Bards' perform in their own video because the visuals are based around their dreams and unfulfilled wishes.

An example of a 'Televised bard' music video is 'Written in the Stars' by Tinie Tempah ft Eric Turner. Tinie Tempah states that the song is a passionate track about the sort of struggle that he had to face as a teenager. This song talks about his plans about performing at festivals and so he practices and starts to warm up, ready to perform to loads of people. The artists both feature in the video performing, alongside the narrative of the video.

Finally, an 'Electronic Shaman' where the performance and the artist is not seen, but instead we hear the lyrics. The artist embodies different characters and alter-egos in the form of an animation or cartoon. The voice of an 'electronic shaman' is matched with abstract video effects and maybe synthesized music.

An example of an 'Electronic Shaman' is the music video for 'Lollipop' by Mika. Here we can see that there are no visuals of the music artist, but only an animated performance of a girl, walking through a magical world of candy. All of the video is made up of just animated characters and a fiction-based setting, of which is not real in modern-day society.

Conceptual:

A 'Conceptual' music video is where the audience see other visuals that aim to have artistic ambition, rather than a music video, which features the artist/s telling a narrative. 

'La La La' by Naughty Boy ft Sam Smith is an example of a 'conceptual' music video, due to its presence of actors, starring and narrating the song, which doesn't include the vocalist Sam Smith. The music video clearly shows a narrative, which doesn't involve the artist, but the actors instead. We can apply Andrew Goodwin to this, where the lyric 'I'm covering my ears like a kid' is shown through visuals e.g. a kid putting his fingers in his ears to avoid talking to other people. The focus of the music video, therefore, is not on the artist, so there is no 'commercial exhibitionist' to sell this video.