In the Music Industry there are three main types of music videos that are created that include:
Narrative Based Videos
Performance based videos
Concept based videos
A Performance based video is a music video in which the main focus is the video's singer or the band performing the song. In most cases this type of music video is often presented as the singers performing to the camera however there have been some music videos where the performers are shown to be performing to an audience.
Performance based music videos are often commonly used by Rock bands such as Linkin Park and Green Day as this music video technique is used help to present this music video as a Rock concert that the band would be performing at which gives the video more of a realistic and livelier feel .
This is an example of a Performance based music video by the american band Linkin Park
Song:What I've done
Performers-Linkin Park
Realise date- 2nd of April,2007
Genre: Alternative Rock
A Nartative theory is essetially the formula for how a story would progress, consisting of a begining, a dilemma occuring that would cause disturbance or disruption in the storys setting or a problem that the protagonist would need to face and then a conclusion which resolves the dilema in the end.
The Franco Bulgarian philospher and phyciatrist Tzvetan Tordrov had once studied story naratives and had used is findings to produce a formula, that represents the order for how the story would follow.
This theory would begin in a social setting, in which there is a sense of peace and order present at the time along with a firm sense of social order.This state of peace is called Equilibrium which means a situation in which any of the opposing sides in the story's setting are balanced.
The story of this Narrative then progresses into the middle of the story , to which the Equilibrum has become disrupted by a dilemma, such as a conflict or the arrival of the story's antagonist and the sinister actions by the antagonist. As this is the complete opposite of Equilibrum this is called Disequilibrium.
The effects of whatever the dilemma is , or what the antagonist has caused to happen would the lead to the introduction of the story's protagonist. This person would then set out to intervene in the in the story's dilemma and put an end to it . The protagonist would then succeed to provail in his mission and over come the antagonist and any other oppposing forces that he would have to face. The story is then restored to its orginal peacefull and balanced state in the form of 'New Equilibrum'.
Narative formula : Equilibrium leads to Disequilibrium which then eventually leads to New Equilibrum.
A russian structuralist called Vladamir Propp had reasearched a number of fairy tale stories and had produced a listed of character types and events that are associated with them, based on what he had learnt from he's studies(much like Tordrov). He then called these factors that he had identified 'functions'.
The main factors and character types that fairy stories consists of are:
The hero(protagonist)
The villian (antagonist)
The doner (offers gift with magical properties)
The helper (sides hero)
The princess (hero's award)
Tzvetan Tordrov
Tzvetan Tordrov was a philosopher from Bulgaria who had theoriszed the Narrative story method of Stories are that is based on the changing states of Equillibrum. This method would involve of a story which begins in state of Equillibrum thst means this setting in which this story is taking place would be a society that is currently in a calm and peacefull state where the opposing forces are even.
This Equillibrum would then be disrupted by the film's dilemma in which the story will be faced with a certain predicament that affects either the story's characters or the story's setting in some way that could potentially be life threatening to them.
The state of when a story is faced with a dilemma is called a Disequllibrum.
This predicament would then cause the story to introduce the protagonist of the film, who would be set with the task of solvig the story's dilemma in any way they can and therefore putting an end to the story's Disequllibrum.
Most often in stories or films the protagonist would be forced to set on a task to put an end to the story's Disequllibrum because they are unwilling and the task could be extremely risky, however there are a few situations when the protagonist would accept their task freely as they would see it as their duty.
The protagonist would then eventually overcome all of their obstacles by then conclusion of the story and then restore the films peaceful and calm state therefore creating New Equllibrum.
Vladamir Propp
Vladimir Propp was a soviet russian scholar and film critic.He had studied the various folk tale stories to find out all of their structure similarities in order to see whether they had all followed a specific Narrative pattern.
As a result of his findings, Propp had concluded that each folk tale that he had studied followed 31 narrative functions and resolved around a group of eight different kinds of characters:
The Hero-the Protagonist of the story.The person of whom's prespective shown is shown in the story and who sets out on a quest to thwart the Villian's schemes.
The Villian-The person who opposes the stories Protagonist.
The Dispatcher- The person who sends the hero on his or her task.
The Helper- The person who helps the hero in his task.
The Doner - The person who provides the hero with a magical object or the person that trains the hero for their mission.
The princess- The hero's love interest that the hero cannot marry throughout the story (which is often because she is being imprisoned by the Villain). At then end of the story when the hero defeats the Villain the hero is now able to marry the princess as his reward.
The Princess' father- This person can also be seen as the dispatcher as their have been numerous occasions in which the father of the princess sends the hero to retrieve his daughter safely. By the end he often rewards the hero by giving him and his daughter his blessings to elope.
The False hero-The person who attempts to take credit from the protagonist's heroic actions or the person who pretends to be the protagonist so that he or she can benefit from the hero's rewards.
Cluade Levi-Strauss
Cluade Levi-Strauss was a french ethnologist and anthropologist.
He had researched the different narrative structures by identifying the binary oppositions that are presented within a story.The Binary oppositions in a story are essentially a group of one or more individuals that are conflicting against each other because they have contrasting aims and beliefs. This causes them to fight for their separate causes which therefore makes them see each other as enemies.
The most common example of this is the forces of Good verses the forces of Evil. This conflict is very common in stories and various types of other media because these two forces are very identifiable as being enemies seeing as though they are polar opposites of each other.This means that these separate groups would believe and want different things for themselves as well as the well beings of their societies, whether they'd want to keep the peace in it or damage it.
In the Music Industry there are three main types of music videos that are created that include:
Narrative Based Videos
Performance based videos
Concept based videos
A Narrative based video is a music video which follows a storyline(or a Narrative) throughout the whole of the video. These types of videos often involve fictional characters made solely for the music video, which are often mute so that only the video's performers can only be heard singing in the video.
At times the video's singer can be featured as a character, in which they would interact with the other characters.
In most cases the characters in a Narrative based music video will often be faced with a kind of Dilemma or will have a story arc that would progress as the music video progress and the lyrics that the video's performer sings would often represent how the characters are feeling or reflect their situation.
As this type of music video is structured by following a narrative, the same film narrative theories which were theorised by Vladimir Propp,Tzvetan Todorov and Levi Strauss can also be applied to music videos the same way as if they were films.
A example of a Narrative based video can be the 2012 song 'Payphone' which was performed by the American Pop rock band Maroon 5.
Song: Payphone
Performers: Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa
Release date:17th of April ,2012
Genre:Pop
This Music video can be viewed as a Narrative music video as it follows a particular storyline which centres around Adam Levine (who the lead singer of Maroon 5), while he and the rest of the band are performing the song in the background. In addition this video appears to follow all of the Narrative theories that were theorised by Propp,Strauss and Todorov as elements of all narrative theories can be present in this video.
Propp's Music video analysis of Payphone
The Music video begins with Adam Levine(the Hero) in an unknown location, looking ragged and injured while remembering his life prior to this happening when he was working in a bank and simply living his ordinary every day life. His peaceful life changes when the bank he is working in , is suddenly raided by a group of armed robbers(the Villains) who take the whole bank staff hostage and rob the bank.
While this is happening Levine looks over to his attractive female co worker(Love interest/ Hero's reward) who is hiding behind a desk and tells her to remove her shoes(which she does), indicating that he is planning to escape with her.
A robber than approaches Levine with his back facing him and Levine notices a handgun sticking out of his back pocket. Taking advantage of the situation Levine takes the gun from the robber(which makes him an inadvertant Doner) and then uses it to over power him and then distracts the other bank raiders while Levine and his love interest safely escape the building .
Unfortunately when they get outside, a policeman sees Levine still holding the handgun and opens fire at him(mistaking him for one of the robbers) which causes Levine and his love interest to run from the police.
The two protagonists then take re fudge behind a car, in which Levine tells his female co worker to hide in its boot so that the police will only follow him.
Once his love is safely hidden, Levine then notices that the famous rapper Wiz Khalifa has arrived in the same location and leaves his car with his chauffeur.
Desperate to escape the police Levine then steals the keys from the chauffeur , gets in the car and drives away, which then leads to a lengthy car chase between Levine and numerous police cars.In addition the fact that Levine gained the car from Wiz Khalifa would make him a accidental 'Doner' to Levine.
Eventually Levine manages to escape all of the police cars by causing one of them to flip over, which causes a massive car crash stopping all of the police cars and injuring Levine.
The music video ends, where it began with Levine using a Payphone in an unknown area trying to contact his love interest.
Struass's Music video analysis of Payphone
There is a sense of Binary opposites that are clashing as this music video is progressing.
The video begins with Levine and his love interest(forces of Good) being confronted with bank robbers that are armed with guns(forces of Evil). Levine then briefly fights back at the robbers by taking a gun from one of them and uses it to, throw the other robbers off guard as him and his love interest escape the building, while narrowly dodging the bullets that the robbers are firing at them.
Todorov's music video analysis of Payphone Narrative formula-Equilibrium leads to Disequilibrium which then eventually leads to New Equilibrium.
In order for the stage of the music video to transition from Disequilibrium to New Equilibrium, the protagonist of this story would then have to take notice of the dilemma that he or she is being faced with and would then have to do something to solve this problem.
The stage in which the protagonist notices the problem is called 'Recognition' and part in which the protagonist is compelled to solve the solution is called 'Reparation'.
The video begins with Levine and his love interest working peacefully in a bank-Equilibrium
This peace is then disturbed when a group of masked gunmen , enter the bank and being to loot it while taking everyone working there hostage (including Levine and his love interest). -Disequilibrium
Levine and his love interest are taken hostage, and he realises that if he does not act, all of the they will be either killed or robbed.-Recognition
Levine then fights back by taking a gun from one of the robbers and uses it to defend himself against the robbers , so that he can escape the building with his love interest. Unfortunately he is still holding the gun when he and the girl escape the building and a nearby policeman spots him with it and starts shooting at him which causes various other policeman in police cars to pursue the protagonists. Levine then hides his love interest in a car boot and the steals Wiz Khalifa's car so that he can evade all of the police cars that are chasing him.- Reparation
Levine then successfully escapes from all of the police cars and is now safe from them and all of the bank robbers.-New Equilibrium
Madness-Our House
(Release date-12th of November ,1982)
Mis-en-scene:
Old fashion British Mews home(wallpaper,clothes,decour)
1980's British working class family lifestyle
Man in British school uniform(featuring a blazer,hat and shorts) in a Queen rock style
Cockney British accents
British family play squash)
Old fashion 1980's cars
Lead singer wearing fingerless gloves
Kid British-Our house is Dadless
(Release date-4th of July,2009)
Intertextuality- Representation of British youths,,young women,young men, social class, the late 2000's, disfunctional family life, British society.
Mis-en-scene: Clothing, Lyrics, settings, Age, Social class, Race
Children- Careless, Fun loving, playing in the garden
British teenagers- Working class, wearing Checkered shirts and Hoodies, socializing in their local postcode area.
Teenagers are shown being disrespectful and rebellious by jumping over neighbours fences.
A Policeman is shown arresting teenage girls.
Teenage boys are shown rapping about house areas, often comparing their homes to houses in other areas of London.
A working class woman is shown cooking a British breakfast in her kitchen (which consists of bacon, eggs, beans etc)
A young man in his early 20's is shown to be unemployed,unoccupied and appears to be still living in his mother's home because of that.
A teenager raps about having a disfunctional family home and also living in a one parent household. This can be seen as he refers to his 'Mummsie' as being Dadless, which is a clear reference to how many children in London are brought up by single parents.
School boys are shown playing football in their uniforms.
A whiteman is shown with dreadlocks.
The camera focus's on the teenagers to show what they are wearing(trainers, checkered shirts, hats, hoodies etc)
In this video, young people are shown to be spending more of their time outside on the streets with their friend and less time at home with their families. This type of Mis-en-scene is used to reflect how young British people consider their friends to be their families and also tend to draw away from their actual families when they reach the adolescent stage of life.
Establishing shots of houses are shown seemingly pacted together as if they are estate.
A teenage boy refers to his house as a Manor house.
Teenagers are represented as being very lazy in this video. A boy in his late teens raps about his mother giving him orders and that he often replies by saying that 'I'll do it later or yeah in a minute', which shows that he is often very unreliable or unwilling to carry out his mother's requests.
Culture change
This song was influenced by an old fashion 1980's British song.
In 'Our House' the lead singer is white, whereas in 'Our house is Dadless' the lead singer from Kid British is a young black teenager. This can be used to show how in the 1980's the common stereotype of a British young man would be a white man , but nowadays in the 2000's , London has become disversified with many different cultures, one of the most common being the Black british culture.
Homogenius
This band who performs this song consists of a variety of different races and races of each singer goes in this order as they take turns in singing : Black boy, Mix race boy and then a White boy.
Alternative themes- A young man desires to have a good lifestyle and be very wealthy. When the audience is introduced to him he is shown to be sat down in a sun chair while holding a fizzy drink the same way he would hold a cock tail drink. He is clearly imaging himself holding a cocktail being near a pool.
This was probably used to represent the harsh reality of teenagers having very big aspirations when it is very unlikely for them to achieve their goals.
Secular religious lifestyle- Teenagers are presented as being non-religious and unwilling to go to church.
Our house is Dadless- The singer's parents have apparently been divorced.
The teenagers jump over their neighbour's fences- They consider their community to be their family as they jump over fences as if they are allowed to do so.
People are shown to be keeping farm animals like sheep and chicken in their gardens. The teenagers do this as a way of becoming closer to nature, which reflects their desire for lots of land.
The influence of video games will predominate for the younger audience with the more sophisticated look of characters emerging(as seen for example in Robbie Williams's 'Let Love be your Energy' which was directed by Olly Reed and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers 'Californication which was released in 2000 and directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Another example of a music video that was influenced by the style of video games was the Linkin Park music video 'Breaking the Habit'(directed by Joe Hahn) which was released in 2004 and features a Japanese animation stylization, in which the music video's setting and performers are presented entirely through Japanese anime.
Califorinication by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers (2000)
Let Love be your Energy by Robbie Williams (2001)
Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park (2003)
John Stuart's description of Music Video "incorporating,raiding and reconstructioning" is essentially the essence of intertextuality.
Using something in which the audience's family can generate both nostalgic associations and new meanings.
