How important are stars in music videos?

Personally, I don't believe that the stars are required in their music videos.

There are a lot of bands who I would not recognize if I met them face to face, and therefore by having them in their own video would not make a huge difference as there will be a large amount of viewers who won't realise that it is the artists that they are watching, not just listening to. A counter arguement for this is that by having the stars in the video, the viewers will be able to familiarise themselves with the artists more, and be able to recognise them if they are in other music videos.

However, some songs don't use the music stars in them and instead, use famous actors. For example, The Day I Died by Just Jack uses James Nesbitt as the character the song is about, while The Prodigy's Invaders Must Die uses Noel Clarke as the character in the video, as shown below.

However, if the artist is able to perform on camera, then by having themselves in their own music videos could turn out really well, as is the case with Jamiroquai and most Girl/Boy groups. This then helps them create an image as well as show the story in hte song as how they see it.

Overall though, I still don't think that it is a neccesatiy that the artists or stars perform in music videos, as often good videos are made up of both the stars or completely unknown actors. I think that if the stars are used in their own videos entirely depends on how the artists feel and look on camera, and what the song itself is about.