You Cannot Make a Music Video If You Haven’t Watched Any

There is a slightly surreal moment that happens regularly when teaching music video.

I look at a student's production and ask: “Which music videos inspired this?”

Silence.

“Which artists in this genre have you researched?”

More silence.

“Which record label would actually release this?”

Absolutely nothing.

And suddenly the problem becomes obvious.

Students are attempting to create a media product without studying the media products they are trying to imitate.

Music videos don't emerge magically from someone's imagination. They exist within genres, industries and audiences. A hip-hop video communicates differently from an indie-rock video. Alternative pop constructs artists differently from mainstream commercial pop. Different labels develop different identities, aesthetics and expectations. Research gives students a visual vocabulary.

Watch five professionally produced videos aimed at a similar audience and suddenly you have ideas about locations, costume, lighting, framing, performance, colour, editing, narrative and representation. You notice how frequently the artist appears. You see when cuts happen. You notice how performance footage is intercut with narrative. You begin to understand what that genre actually looks like. This isn't about copying.

It is about understanding conventions well enough to make informed creative decisions.

Examiner reports make precisely this point. Candidates who research appropriate record labels and analyse artists' videos are better positioned to apply the conventions of their chosen industry and genre. Weaker productions can become purposeless montages, with overlong shots and editing that ignores the music.

Starting with “I've got an idea” is therefore dangerous.

Your imagination is limited by what you have experienced. If your only visual reference is TikTok, your “music video” will probably look like TikTok. So start somewhere else.

Choose your genre. Identify your audience. Find an appropriate record label. Research its artists. Watch their videos repeatedly. Screenshot them. Analyse them. Steal principles, not shots. Then plan. Creativity doesn't begin with an empty page.

It begins with knowing what already exists.