Existing Narrative

01:19:00 Drew Anderson 0 Comments

1)What is a narrative

A narrative is a story that flows through the whole story linking the start to the end.

2) how does narrative work in relation to music videos

The narrative of a music video is very similar to that of any other type of film or play, it has a beginning middle ad end and flows through the whole song. The main difference in the narrative of a music video compared to a film for example is that it doesn't need a strong narrative or any narrative at all and it can still be very effective. The narrative of a music video allows for a bit more creative freedom visually compared to films as we can see in the music videos of bands such as Ok Go which have no narrative but visually are amazing to watch.

3) what are the conventions of the narrative in:

Comedy:

The conventions for a comedy music video as the genre suggests are very jokey and comedic, they don't need to reflect the song as it can be upsetting or sad but still have a funny video which brings about an ironic twist to watching the video, they often see the band or characters doing strange or weird things.

Horror:
The convention of horror music video is normally to scare the audience, for this to work it normally has to reflect the song which haws to itself be fitting to creating the scary feel to the video. Horror music videos normally fit into the pop or rock genre as this music is normally best fitting for scary music videos.

Drama:



Dramatic music videos can be quite moving and often feature things like loss or someone going through a tough time.They feature a lot of dark colours and can often show violence. With this genre of music video it is very important that the song isn't a very happy and upbeat one as if not the video wouldn't fit in with the song.



Romance:
Family:


Family music videos are often happy upbeat and don't tend to have a lot of swearing or inappropriate things on them this is because the video is also for children. However these videos have to be appealing for both children and adults, this  means that the videos often show things like dancing or people in strange locations.


4) how do these narrative theory fit into music videos?

Propp:
" Propp suggested that every narrative has eight different character types, these character types are: The villain — fights the hero in some way. The dispatcher — character who makes the villain’s evil known and sends the hero off. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The heroes journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain and resulting in a “happily ever after” moment. Her father — gives the task to the hero."

This theory shows the basic narrative of a lot of music videos and works very well with the genre of drama or horror for example in the thriller music video Michael jackson would be the hero and the girl the princess,this tear can be used to help give some structure to the narrative of the video. This theory can also fit into comedy music videos with the band playing all these roles.

Todorov:
"Tzvetan Todorov's narrative theory suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure where they begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is restored."

This theory fits into music videos in a similar way that props does it gives balance to the narrative and adds to the hero style of narrative , with this theory the band can also be a big part of it for example it likely that these disruptions in the equilibrium would be happening to the band.

Barthes:
"Barthes theory suggests that all narratives will have one or more of the 5 codes of narrative that he created, these codes are Enigma code, Action code, Semantic code, Symbolic code and referential code"

This theory is the most basic of all narratives not just music videos ,specifically to music videos these make the narrative interesting to watch, for example the enigma code makes you want to find out more. The enigma code can work in music videos that bands make to extend over 3 or 4 songs. A lot of bands make music videos where the story link together and form one big short film of sorts.

Levi-Strauss:
"Levi Strauss theory is that the conflict is based around the binary opposites and that the binary opposites are the central climax of a narrative structure."

This theory can be difficult to fit into a lot of music videos because it requires some conflict to be within the video which doesn't always happen, this theory can certainly be applied however to come and drama music videos where it ould show a hero fighting a villain for example. This theory can also help to make the narrative interesting to watch.