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There are only two or three human stories,'' Willa Cather once wrote, ''and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.'' If the author were still kicking, she could easily have come to this same conclusion after several days surfing the music-video channels. Along with those two or three human stories, artists and directors seem to rely on seven basic approaches that repeat themselves as if videos had never happened before. And as a survey of this season's most-aired clips proves, nearly every new video seems to fit into one of these categories: 1. It's alive! Live performances are the main ingredient of nearly every video recipe, for obvious reasons, but that doesn't mean you can't play with the format. Variations include excerpts from Unplugged shows, lip-synching in some exotic setting (R.E.M. in a parking lot in the coolly noir ''Strange Currencies,'' Dionne Farris testing out the acoustics in a men's room in the blah ''I Know''), and actual live footage (Bruce Springsteen's grizzled ''Murder Incorporated,'' which reminds you what a riveting stage presence he can be). A select few, like Sheryl Crow's staid ''Strong Enough,'' are set in living rooms or studios for that special ''you and 20 million other viewers are catching me in a private moment'' feeling.
2. We're havin' a party! Predominant in hip-hop and R&B videos like TLC's frisky ''Red Light Special,'' with its strip-poker subplot, and the Notorious B.I.G.'s routine house-party ''Big Poppa.'' What better way to visualize the feel-good, hedonistic grooves of your music? Or could it simply be a good excuse for employing 100 of your closest relatives and homies?
3. Collage my world! For those who can't draw, collage is often the art form of choice. Likewise, music-video collages are easy to assemble: Take seemingly random and evocative images, capture them on a variety of film types, toss the mixture into an editing Cuisinart, and serve to an audience with an attention span of one second. Current examples include Veruca Salt's generic lo-fi ''Seether'' and the Dave Matthews Band's annoyingly busy knockoff of old Peter Gabriel clips, ''What Would You Say.'' An artist with a few more bucks in the budget can splurge on better art supplies, like rare antique film and cameras, with much better results. The higher-grain, scratched-negative quality of Hole's ''Violet'' and Nine Inch Nails' ''Closer''-two of the best clips of the past year-adds a creepy German-snuff-film edge to artists who are already pretty creepy.
4. It's a serious film! Some artists have a story to tell that can't be limited to a few piddly musical notes. Even more important, they have the money to support the production costs involved in making a mini-movie. Pioneered by Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' and David Bowie's ''Jazzin' for Blue Jean,'' this genre lives on, even if the story being told has scant connection to the song itself. So, for instance, Dr. Dre's ''Keep Their Heads Ringin''' features a puzzling subplot of young thugs stealing an airplane right out of a hangar, and Juliana Hatfield's ''Universal Heart-Beat'' casts the queen of new-waif rock as a disgruntled aerobics instructor. Live's ''Lightning Crashes'' dramatizes a baby's birth so earnestly that it could be a pro-life TV ad, while Madonna's ''Take a Bow,'' a sepia-toned love story set in Spain that cost the singer and her label at least six figures, allows our heroine to continue to hone her stunted thespian skills.
