Promotional

Music videos are essentially adverts. They are used to sell the artist, the label, and products from both the artist and from large corporations.



Depending on what artist it is; the band may choose to feature themselves in their video or they may feel that they want their video to be about the music.
A band like My Chemical Romance is a band that has a fan base that follows the ideals of the artists more than the music. For example in 'Na Na Na' the band portray themselves as heroes, going against the government, saving children and promoting rock music, the track that they are singing to doesn't necessarily support that.





Gorillaz on the other hand; prefer their videos to show the band as a band and not a collection of individuals. For example, in 'Clint Eastwood' the band are shown as a cartoon playing music, connoting that they want the audience to focus on the music and not just the band. But they also show a lot of clips with the Gorilla to keep in mind the name of the band, as if this video represents the band in all ways except having the band in it.

Artists also promote their merchandise within their videos. A big example of that is Avril Lavigne's 'What The Hell', which includes her clothing line and two of her perfumes during her song. This promotes the merchandise by showing that the artist uses them and the fact that you can buy the shirt that the artist wore in the video and wear the perfume she wears is a big thing for the fans as they believe if they dress and smell like them they could be like them.