Overused Music Video Effects

Don't forget :

6. Fish-eye lens. Usually with some shiny-suited rapper shaking their head or groin at it.

7. Helicopters. Record company given you more money than you can spend on dancing girls and fireworks? Time for a helicopter or twelve.

8. Freakish costumed extras looking at camera. (Bonus points awarded for overbright spotlight between shots, bored-looking extras, siamese twins)

9. Dwarves.

10. Slowing the song down in the middle and having Sean "Puffy" Combes attempt to dance, accompanied by several of the above effects, for no reason at all.

From a 1986 Zappa interview on KPFA:

"I'm going to be doing a video for it (Thingfish), which'll have all the things we've come to expect in a music video...

lips
a girl's legs as she gets out of a car
venetian blinds
doves
midgets
an atomic explosion
a girl twirling around in a lap dissolve
a person pretending to be Chinese
and a pair of red shoes

...and I've asked John Carpenter to direct it. Should be out around Christmas."

The only way I can describe this effect is the earthquake effect.
Usually found in Limp Bizkit and Korn videos and the like, although it has been seen in some Hip-Hop videos too. The group start jumping up and down or stamping their feet, while at the same time the camera shakes violently. This visual effect gives you the impression that the music is literally tearing the house down. Adding this effect can make the music sound 'harder' than it really is, but it's just your brain associating the violent shaking with the music.