Just over half of music videos stay 16:9 to the end: from vertical frames to cinema widescreen, the shapes of 53 MVs

Play a music video on a phone turned sideways and the picture usually fills the screen. That's because it's 16 by 9, meaning the width is 1.78 times the height. But some videos leave black bars on both sides, and others get bars at the top and bottom. We took one frame per second from the 53 official music videos that appeared in NONOL Pick and Hidden Details between September 27 and October 27, and measured how many times wider than tall the actual picture is once the black bars are removed. If a shape different from the main one lasted more than 10 seconds, we counted the video as 'changes partway'. We left out 11 videos: official audio-only uploads, broadcast clips, a special clip and a performance video.

At a glance

Frame shape	Width ÷ height	Videos	Music videos
Vertical	0.56	1	Jeon Woo Sung (Noel) 'Let's Stay Like This'
4:3	1.33	5	BIGBANG 'BiiiG', ATEEZ 'BAD', EVAN 'Death of Me', NCT WISH 'I SPY', SUNGHANBIN 'UNDEAD'
Around 3:2	1.47–1.5	5	ALLDAY PROJECT 'CRASH', YESUNG 'Winds of Time' and 'Pedazos', Biuret × Rhydian Vaughan 'Tropical Night', TIOT 'Five Hours in Pieces'
A little narrower than 16:9	1.55–1.67	4	aespa 'LEMONADE', SOYEON 'I'm gonna TOESA', D.O. 'Guitarist', N.Flying 'Still'
16:9	1.78	27	IU 'Dear my crazy soulmate', BOYNEXTDOOR 'ANIMAL', JUN '9', tripleS 'Andless' and more
Longer than 2:1	2.13–2.19	2	CRAVITY 'LOUDER', YUQI 'Stay'
Cinema screen	2.35~2.39	3	PLAVE 'Star Trace', KIM JAE HWAN 'Call It Love', Wednesday Off 'Lie'
Changes partway	–	6	MEOVV 'GO HARD', Epik High x DAVICHI 'Mise en scène', YENA 'Dime Girl', CLOSE YOUR EYES 'Drop That!', WOOAH 'VOODOO DOLL', MINGI (ATEEZ) 'Where are you'

Width ÷ height is how many times wider than tall the picture is. Below 1 means a frame taller than it is wide. 4:3, like an old CRT TV, is 1.33; 3:2, like a film-camera photo, is 1.5; and a cinema widescreen film is 2.35 to 2.39.

A frame that stands upright

Jeon Woo Sung (Noel) 'Let's Stay Like This'

The only vertical frame among the 53. At 0.56 times as wide as it is tall, it's 9:16, the shape that fills a phone held upright. At 0:10 a person walking past a long wall is caught small at the bottom of the frame, with a cloudy sky filling the top half. At 1:00, above a person standing at the foot of a brick wall, tree branches cover the frame all the way to the top. The story of a song where the drums and bass stay for just 76 seconds is in the October 18 NONOL Pick. Apple Music

4:3, like an old TV

ATEEZ 'BAD', EVAN 'Death of Me', NCT WISH 'I SPY' and SUNGHANBIN 'UNDEAD' are also 4:3 from start to finish. 'BAD' opens with a wedding scene, and 'Death of Me' shows a concert hall where the guests in the seats are mannequins.

BIGBANG 'BiiiG'

It's 4 by 3 from start to finish, so on a 16:9 screen black bars remain on both sides. It's a digital single released on August 19, the 20th anniversary of BIGBANG's debut. Scenes like the coffins flying through space at 0:05 and the giant cake with a '20'-shaped candle at 0:37 are collected in the October 14 Hidden Details. Apple Music

A little narrower than 16:9

Five videos are around 1.5 times as wide as they are tall, the same 3:2 shape as a film-camera photo. ALLDAY PROJECT 'CRASH', YESUNG 'Winds of Time' and 'Pedazos', and Biuret × Rhydian Vaughan 'Tropical Night' are 1.5, and TIOT 'Five Hours in Pieces' is 1.47. aespa 'LEMONADE' is 1.55, SOYEON 'I'm gonna TOESA' and D.O. 'Guitarist' are 1.61, and N.Flying 'Still' is 1.67. On a 16:9 screen, all nine leave bars on both sides.

As long as a cinema screen

KIM JAE HWAN 'Call It Love' is also 2.35 from start to finish. The NONOL Pick on Wednesday Off 'Lie' carried two videos: the 'Lie (Live)' music video is 16:9, while the original music video, released first in June, is 2.39. That makes it the longest of all the videos that keep one shape from start to finish. CRAVITY 'LOUDER' is 2.13 and YUQI 'Stay' is 2.19, a little less long.

PLAVE 'Star Trace'

It's 2.35 from start to finish, with bars at the top and bottom: the same shape as a cinema widescreen film. The photo at the top of this article is from 1:51, the five members dancing on a stage lined with race cars. The story of a video that, at 2:55 where the song should end, turns the music back 30 seconds and runs one more lap is in the October 24 Hidden Details. Apple Music

Frames that change shape partway

MEOVV 'GO HARD'

It starts as a narrow 1.47 frame with bars on both sides. After 'always go hard', left with just the voice, the drums come in for the first time at 0:50.0, and at 0:50.08 the side bars disappear and bars appear at the top and bottom, turning it into a long frame 2.12 times as wide as it is tall. It goes back and forth between the two shapes, becomes a bar-free 16:9 for the first time only at 2:37.96, and stays that way through the last chorus. The scene-by-scene story is in the October 19 Hidden Details. Apple Music

Epik High x DAVICHI 'Mise en scène'

The 'film' scenes inside the video are 2.35, with bars at the top and bottom. But at 1:19, where a person in a white coat sits in front of a wall of monitors, and at 1:58 and 2:27, where a machine with dials and buttons appears, the bars disappear and the picture fills the frame. From 2:45 to the end, it's also bar-free 16:9. A scene of four people reclining in chairs in a white room (2:52) follows, and the credits roll over it. The story of the video that opens with 'AUTHOR'S NOTE' and the last 14 seconds that aren't in the lyric sheet is in the October 27 NONOL Pick. Apple Music

YENA 'Dime Girl'

The first 15 seconds or so are a 4:3 frame that looks like camcorder footage, with 'HDV' and a running timecode in the corner. After that, 4:3 camcorder shots cut in for a few seconds at a time between 16:9 scenes (around 0:18 and around 0:33). The story of a song where 'you're the pretty one' becomes 'I'm the pretty one' is in the October 9 NONOL Pick. Apple Music

CLOSE YOUR EYES 'Drop That!'

For the first 22 seconds, the frame is 1.31 times as wide as it is tall, a little narrower even than 4:3. Inside it a boy roams the streets, and at 0:22, as the first line of verse one, 'Black jeans, cap, empty street', arrives, the picture widens on both sides into 16:9 and sparks fly from under a member's shoe. The story of the 1979 bass line running through half the song is in the October 1 Hidden Details. Apple Music

WOOAH 'VOODOO DOLL'

One video, three shapes. It opens like a pixel game, becomes a narrow frame with empty sides from around 0:20 to 0:30, and from 0:58 to 1:19 the bars at the top and bottom thicken into a very long frame 2.9 times as wide as it is tall, longer even than a cinema screen (2.35). The rest is mostly 16:9. The story of a song that holds its breath for four seconds before bursting is in the October 3 NONOL Pick. Apple Music

MINGI (ATEEZ) 'Where are you'

It's mostly 2.35 with bars at the top and bottom, but for 30 seconds from 0:46 to 1:15 the bars get a little thinner and it becomes 2.2. That's the stretch with a dark pool under a diving tower (0:55) and an underwater scene (1:05). The story of the drums that come back after 'run without fear' is in the October 19 NONOL Pick. Apple Music

The other 27 are 16:9 from start to finish: videos like IU 'Dear my crazy soulmate', BOYNEXTDOOR 'ANIMAL', JUN '9', NiziU 'Sour Grapes', LEE HAN GYUL 'BUNZI', HYOJUNG 'Unmapped', TEEN TOP 'DON'T STOP', tripleS 'Andless' and the original version of Hearts2Hearts 'ICONIC HEART'. Among the videos left out of the count, all five official audio uploads from Topic channels were square (1:1), showing the album cover.