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What is the difference between a demo and a music video?

It is widely accepted that a demo is like a music video, except the visuals are effects, running in real time on (or at least generated by...) a computer.

Main point being, a demo is different from a music video only in that it is a technical audiovisual experience, not just an audiovisual experience.

This means that you may like this video or that, as well as a demo, but you appreciate technical achievements and if it's a demo, your like is valued to the extent that the demo is technical. In no other way is the release different from a music video, and in all of the Demoscene, we express a techno-appeal.

Even for gfx and music, which can be so instantly likeable the moment we see/hear it! - We'd love to know how it was made (and in competition, often must share how it was made or get DQ'd if reference is obvious!)

For effects/visuals, this is not required, which is curious with regards to this techno-appeal we all express. It is treated as a side note.

Or is it the core of the Demoscene?

This is what I think and this is my anthem.

This is my church.
This is where I heal my hurts.

This is an anthem, so fucking sing
A dedication to the end of everything

Thanks for this explanation that we’ve used for the past 15-20 years already.

A demo does not need sound at all or can replace music with sound effects which may imply that demos are closer to the video art at the fundamental conceptual level.

...even though typically demo's aesthetic approach (and the fact that demos usually are not build around any conceptual aesthetic idea and they usually don't contain social commentary) pushes them closer to music videos.

I used to think of demos as short movies rather than music videos.

*looks at watch* jesus christ, didn't know it was time for this discussion already

Can't someone make a car analogy, like decent people?

I agree that demos and music videos are easy to delineate. It's as much about intent as about technicalities.
Music videos are mostly about music and the visuals produced offline, demos are mainly about visuals produced in realtime. So, while for most productions the case is clear, it could be argued that e.g. 9 Fingers and 242 are more on the music video side. Not that it matters much.

What do these technical aspects of demos contain seems to go much further than just real time vs. animation/video. In music videos the technical aspects such as "what Amiga can do" have no role at all while in demos like "9 Fingers" they are clearly there. Another significant technical aspect in demos is that they are ideally watched on a real hardware rather than on YouTube or VHS. In this latter sense demos may slightly resemble video art which often sets requirements on how the work is supposed to be watched.

242 and 9 Fingers were conveyors for content that was filmed outside. For the programmers they may have been show-offs for blitter unpacking of animation frames, but that would've been pointless without the filmed content. So I'd place them halfway in music video territory. For the demo form it's uninteresting to replicate an effect that has been shown before, but anim players can deliver variable content with the same programming. So they're something different, IMO.

but what are demos really about?

Constant surpassing of what has been demonstrated before, I'd say.
And all demos are resting on the shoulders of the demos that came before them.

Nowadays we have age handicaps. "3-year-old plays Paganini", "90-year-old goes skydiving", "50-year-old codes scroller on Amiga!!", "Middle-aged scener reacts to old prods!!" Can you still do it when you're 60?

I hope I will still do cubes and glenz vectors at 60+, can't wait to spent all my old days making demos and going to demoparties during all the year without restriction!

When I am sixty-four ... I AM THE MACHINE

if i ever find a 303 in the skip, i'll be DJ Techno-Appeal. *party horn*

Also it seems that a lot of people forgot the "fun" part of demos, there was a lot of funny/humorous demos during the golden era of the Amiga demoscene, and nobody complained about that.

The Real 40k by Lego was one of these, and it's still one of my favourite intro, before tons of super technical but boring or ugly intros...

Is it?

f**k yea!!!! but is it a cool scroller or a lame one? ;))


one can dream!!

Ferries, moose, and the exciting lives of primitive 3D objects, mostly.

and a lot of (3DS) ducks ;)

Excellent taste, sir!