Research: Carol Vernallis' Theory

Carol Vernallis's theory on music videos is that they do not obey the usual rules of other forms of video such as film and TV drama. One of the main points of her theory is that there are generally a lot more cuts in music videos, and the speed of editing is much faster than in films. She also noticed that the rules of continuity are often broken in music videos to attract attention to the artist/performer and also to keep the audiences attention.
Much of the editing & camera work is synchronised with the music, so the cuts are in time with the track, which makes the video flow better and become like a visual form of the song. This is not always true however, as there are often jump cuts and many videos do not relate to the song at all (disjuncture)

Most videos do have a base track (or master shot) which is like the foundation on which the other shots are built, giving the video some structure. The cuts between these shots are often very obvious (such as wipes or fades) to draw attention to it and keep the audience’s attention.

This video illustrates Vernallis’ theory, as it features lots of rapid edits between titles which are often in time with the drum fills to draw attention to the cuts.