Animated Music Video

From Fanlore
Jump to: navigation, search
Synonyms: Multi Animator Project
See also: Picture Music Video, Animatic, Warrior Cats
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

This article or section needs expansion.

An animated music video, or an "AMV," (not to be confused with Anime Music Videos) is a broad term that can refer to a number of video arts, mostly on Youtube.[1] These can either be music videos with animations drawn by artists, music videos set to clips of cartoons, or even music videos set to real footage of things like TV shows and movies. While "animated music video" draws attention to the 'animated' part of the phrase, people who make and enjoy AMVs do indeed list non-animated content as "AMVs." So, broadly, the phrase refers to any non-anime music video. For example if one searches X-Files AMV on Youtube they will find fan made music videos of clips to the the X-files, even though the X-files is not technically animated.

To differentiate between AMVs that use canon clips from TV and movies, AMVs that are set to artist drawn animation and involve multiple artists are identified as MAPs, or "multi-animator projects" (not to be confused with MAP, or "Minor Attracted Person"). They are different than animatics or PMVs (picture music videos) due to having more fluid animation. They are common in the Warrior Cats fandom though many fandoms also create MAPs, and there are even a large amount of original character MAPs.

While it's difficult to search the question "what is an AMV" online and find any info on animated music videos in the context of pop culture, at least one Urban Dictionary entry from 2015 acknowledges that AMV can mean animated music video.[2]


There is no doubt that anime music videos coined the usage of "AMV" first. According to Wikipedia "the first anime music video was created in 1982 by 21-year-old Jim Kaposztas."[3] However, animated music videos have been around much longer than the phrase's current meaning. Vidding has existed for a very long time in fandom. Vidding is the act or process of creating a fan-oriented video or "fanvid" using live-action TV or movie footage set to music (or other audio). The first fanvids were made in 1975 by Kandy Fong using a slide projector and a cassette tape player. While searching "X-Files AMV" on Youtube reveals an endless stream of just X-files clips set to music, searching "X-Files Vid" reveals a list of music videos mixed in with regular clips of the show and crack videos. Still, the connection between a vid and an AMV is there, and can be used almost interchangeably.

It's likely that the act and usage of the word "vidding" versus "AMV" is simply a change in lingo across time,[4] though they are nearly the exact same thing.



Multi-Animator Projects

AMVs Set to Animation

AMVs Set to Live Action

Links & Resources


  1. ^ Editor's Note: All 3 of my Internet-savvy millennial friends responded that "AMV" either stood for anime music video or animated music video, interchangeably.
  2. ^ AMV, Urban Dictionary. Jun 24, 2015 (Accessed 6/20/2020)
  3. ^ Anime Music Video, Wikipedia (Accessed 6/20/2020)
  4. ^ Editors Note: I joined fandom circa 2008 and never heard the term "vidding" until 2020, though I'd been residing in fan forums at that time. We only ever used the term "AMV" when we made music videos for our fandoms. We didn't even use the term "vidding" for our crack vidoes or skits; we used crack or Youtube Poop.