No lyrics? No problem! There are usually 2 scenarios where an artist’s music has no lyrics. The first is that it’s electronic music ie. EDM. The second is that it’s instrumental music and the primary artist is playing an instrument on the song ie. an acoustic guitarist, jazz or blues band. Certain pieces of electronic or instrumental music evokes different emotions and many artists choose to express themselves or tell a story without the use of lyrics. In many cases, these pieces of music tend to be extremely powerful. Just because there are no lyrics doesn’t mean you can’t have an equally evocative visual to compliment your song release. The team at Lyric Vids love to bring an artist’s song to life and there are a few options for these scenarios:
- Audio Visualizer
An audio visualizer is a creative video production that in some way responds to the music but doesn’t have lyrics animated as part of it. It tends to generate animated imagery based on the music and for added effect, can be synchronized with the music itself. This is one of the most popular choices among DJs, producers and EDM artists. Instead of an app-generated visualizer, we produce customized videos that directly relate to the artist’s song, using mood, theme and branding as major inspirations.
One of our favorite custom audio visualizers is Voost’s ‘Sometimes It Hurts’
- Animated Music Video
You don’t need lyrics for an animated video! Animated music videos are a great way to tell a musician’s story without the use of lyrics or words. Through visuals, you can share the deeper meaning of the song or create entertaining videos for your fans to come back to over and over. One of the greatest examples of this would be Disney’s Fantasia. There are no lyrics, just instrumental music paired with stunning animations. Walt Disney himself referred to it as an “unending voyage of discovery in the realms of color, sound and motion”. For electronic music, larger than life futuristic themes make for a vibrant and innovative music video.
Another creative idea is to create animated characters who live in a cohesive world and appear consistently in new music videos. Fans become familiar with them and are eager to see what adventures they are up to next. A perfect example of this is the virtual band Gorillaz, which consists of four animated characters who live in a fictional universe which is consistently presented in their music videos, interviews and short cartoons.
A great example of a unique animated video is Buffy’s ‘Cruel’
- Motion Graphic
Another great alternative for a video would be a motion graphic extension of the artist’s release material such as the album cover or the single artwork. These moving elements match the rest of the visuals and provide a cohesive branding pertaining to the artist or the song in particular. These can also be useful to have as backing visuals for live performances.
A great example of a motion graphic extension would be Jason Derulo’s ‘Lifestyle‘ (feat. Adam Levine) [David Guetta Slap House Mix]
