Lyric videos came about at the same time that video platforms established themselves as an authority around the world. The pivotal difference though is how these videos are created, represented, and delivered. Your song determines the vibe of the lyric video should you decide to create one, which you should by the way. These videos can create just as much of a buzz around your song as a music video. They perform particularly well then the song is abundant in meaning, words, and doesn’t rely on its commercialism alone to sell. Discover below the 7 types of lyrics that actually work and will help you promote your music to a lot more people in the most possibly organic way.
7. Diary-like Lyric Videos
These lyric videos are used by a myriad of A-listers. More often than not, the authors seem to be women as it’s an age-old idea that women keep diaries and engage in journaling a lot more than men do. The aesthetics are key when creating a lyric video like this. Retro filters, handwritten/cursive font, and if you can throw in some old photos, you’ve aced it. Best for love songs, breakup songs, introspective and nostalgic narratives. In short, if your song sounds like an excerpt from a diary, this is the ideal lyric video for it.
6. Cartooned Lyric Videos
Eminem’s lyric video for Alfred’s Theme is sick! Even the lyric visual respects the branding of the Rap legend. Compared to most typologies on this list, animated/cartooned lyric videos are the most expensive as few artists, if any, have such deep knowledge of motion graphics. Consequentially musicians resort to outsourcing and pay third parties to create these intricate visuals. For those of you interested in such content, know you should give your motion designer at least 3 weeks to create your video. The upside though presents itself in an alternative music video to the song. If it’s a video done really well, you may not even need to spend extra money on an actual music video. You can run with the animated version and you’ll do great. Hip Hop songs seem to benefit the most from this format as they’re wordy and true MCs want their fans to pay attention to the lyrics more than to their outfits and haircuts.
5. BTS-infused Lyric Videos
We don’t mean the K-pop group. We mean the traditional Behind The Scenes acronym. This category of lyric videos is very easy to pull off. Mix together home videos, studio videos, fun videos that your fans haven’t seen before, add fonts and some FX on top, color grading if you know what you’re doing, and BAM! No cost lyric video that will decidedly pull in more fans for your song than just the song alone on Spotify for example. The more footage, the better by the way. A lyric video doesn’t mean it has to be boring.
4. Handmade Lyric Videos
Handmade lyric videos are fun, often tedious, but very rewarding. People can tell when something was computer-generated or if it was you who cut out the letters and spread them on the floor. Christina Perry is an amazing example of uber-creative lyric videos. When in panic of ideas, look at Christina’s lyric visualizers and you’ll instantly be inspired. From cardboards, stones, bottles, matches, paintings, street signs, and seashells that make up the words, you have unlimited resources around you. Just get to work because it’ll take a while!
3. Apparently Naked Lyric Videos
Apparently naked because albeit seeming simple, often these lyric videos require more than just the lyrics on the screen as many rookie artists think. Ideally, you want a moving image in the background and a neat font to match the song vibe and visual. If your song is a Dance track, you can’t put birds and clouds in the background and paste a graffiti font on top. I mean you can but it’ll confuse people to the point of not taking you seriously as an artist. Taylor Swift demonstrates the unity and common ground of the comprising elements of the lyric video: she speaks in the past tense and the video moves in slow motion while abiding by a very muted color scheme. Not to mention the typewriter retro font. Make sure your lyric video is excellently in sync with what you’re talking about and what the overall song sounds like.
2. Artsy Lyric Videos
These are fun because you can go overboard and off the rails as long as you give off hipster vibes. Or better said: artsy mood. If you can add a flower in the middle somewhere and a grainy filter, you’re good to go 😀 Imperfections are perfect for this aesthetic. Go for asymmetry, low saturated colors, blurred shots, and real-life items wherever possible. A digitalized font is to be avoided as it shows modern-day influence while you’re trying to help people escape their present time and into your marvelous music. Although Ariana Grande used a computer screen to show the lyrics, she still made sure they weren’t directly on your screen but rather on another obviously real computer in the distance so that it still gives you a real-life experience.
1. Fan Lyric Videos
When you involve your fans in creating such material, a lyric video becomes a tremendous promotional tool. Each of the fans involved in your video will share the link with their friends and family to show off how they’ve been involved in the making of it. This subsequently creates a word-of-mouth chain effect where many more people will consume your song organically just to see their cousin, brother, classmate, friend, etc. Be smart and courteous about it, preferably offer an exclusive product in exchange for your fans’ time, give clear instructions, and allow for plenty of time to get it together because people these days are extremely busy with remote work and studies so being on the computer tends to be associated with work and fatigue and not so much fun anymore.
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