Chad Domenicis writes:
"Selling music is the primary purpose of music videoclips. Remember their
original name was "Promo clips." The artistic aspect is mostly the result of
the music company's concern for a vehicle that will promote the product in a
complimentary manner, and in a manner complementary to the artistic content
(if any) of the product. If the artist has enough clout, (and his/her records
sell enough,) the artist can insist on bigger budgets and more art in the
video production.
And actually, most of the artists and the video producers and directors are
in it for the art first and then the business, but one should never forget
that he product has to sell."
 
I certainly agree, but sometimes there are interesting offshoots.  A few
years back, our PBS station ran a show called COLOR SOUNDS (or something
like that) which did identify the music video's director (one of the rare
times, besides occasionally on NIGHTFLIGHT on USA).  What was intriguing
about this show was that it was apparently being used to teach grammar!
 
The clip would begin with a computer-typed note about a word search (for
example, "noun search") and then the songs lyrics would be shown in
subtitles, with the appropriate word category highlighted whenever it
appeared.  Unusual, yes.  Stupid, perhaps.  But very interesting (unless
you were searching for exclamations and got Twisted Sister singing,
"Oh! Oh! OH! . . . Oh! Oh! Oh!").
 
--Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN