Music videos can be characterised by 3 very broad typologies, written by 'Firth' in 1988. These typologies like I said are quite broad and don't apply to all music videos.
The first of these would be a 'Performance' based video. These videos are mainly to convey a sense of an in-concert experience. Being all performance based encourages the viewers that the music is the most important element to the video.
A performance based video is normally from the Pop genre, setting out to promote it's artist. For example Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Usher, etc.
Above shows the link to a Nicki Minaj video called 'Super Bass' this is a classic example of a performance based video. It doesn't have a story line, it is mainly built up from shots of different locations where Nicki Minaj along with her backing dancers and other characters perform. There are lots of costume changes, bright colours and things to look at.. like a concert or a show you might go to watch.
The next type of music video you may see is a 'Narrative.' This is a video that holds some kind of story for you to follow. The story will normally be a love story of some kind, these are normally the most common as that is what most songs are actually about.
'Action is the story and is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen' - Shcwichtenberg 1992.
These videos are most commonly produced by female artists who are either criticising love and expressing their hate towards males or telling their own love story. The most well known artist for always producing narrative videos in my opinion is American star Taylor Swift.
Above shows an example of one of Taylor Swifts music videos 'Love story.' It tells a mainly positive love story, the lyrics of the song also sometimes coincide with the actions in the video.
However another view taken is from Steve Archer in 2004. He said that often music videos will be cut between both a narrative and a performance based video. Also additionally a choreographed dance routine may also be included in the artists performance time. Sometimes the artist will also take two roles, acting as a narrator to the story and then again being a participant in the video at the same time.
The video to the right called 'Troublemaker' by Olly Murs feat Flo Rida is a good example of a performance video and a narrative video. It tells the story of Olly's relationship with the girl and he is also the narrative and performing through out most of the video.
The final type of video is a 'Conceptual' this is the least common of the 3 I would say. It uses metaphors to create a mood and the video seems to offer multiple meanings. The videos can be seen to be quite strange and sometimes even abstract. Sometimes they don't even include and people in the video but can just be a mash of bright colours and shapes. This style would be more common with your Drum and Bass/ House music (the ones without song lyrics but just a beat.)
To the right shows an example of a music video that fits the 'Conceptual' bill. It is called 'Somebody that I used to know' and it is by 'Gotye'. It could be seen as slightly performance based as the artists are actually in the video but it is very strange and abstract with it's earthy colours and triangular shapes.
According also to Firth and Karlsson artist's themselves are categorised into three different types of performer.
Firstly, there is a 'Commercial Exhibitionist,' an artist who is very famous and well known. They make mainly performance based videos to show off who they are and their talents. Also to promote themselves as an artist. The music genre that this will normally apply to is pop. The artists are normally very good looking, perfected people only. Their music is normally in most cases written for them by somebody else and they just take part in the performing. An example of this would be Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce. 
Secondly there is an 'Electronic Shanan' artist. This is an artist or band that create video without a narrative storyline or performance. The video will just consist of visuals, bright colours, patterns, sound waves etc but no people. This style of video is best suited to music that sometimes doesn't have song lyrics or drum and bass/ dubstep music because they have a lack of storyline to the song so there is less to create visuals on. Music like this seems to be mainly written by the artist themselves but sometimes it can be written by another professional. An example of artists that this theory can relate to is Skrillex, DJ Fresh and Raw Theory.
Finally the last style of artist is a 'Televised Bord,' this is an artist who isn't necessarily the most glamorous, rich and visually appealing person but 99% of the time writes their own music and is very passionate. They probably had to work very hard to get into the music business and it wasn't all just handed to them on a plate. This type of aritst normally relates to singer songwriters in the indie and accoustic music genre. For example Ed Sheeran, Newton Faulkner, Damien Rice etc.
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