2. Propp and Todorov
There is a very clear narrative in the music video which links heavily to the lyrics sung.
The equilibrium is when the black man is growing up, he is seen to be doing normal
activities young children do, such as play in the playground and do sports like running.
Furthermore, the disruption stage is again, very clear. The disruption becomes evident
when the father of the black man finds his homosexual magazines. The father seems to
be upset that his son is gay and the boy seems t be scared and embarrassed, almost as
he’s let his family down. The boy then leaves home after recognising his dad is upset and
isn't welcome at the house anymore. The coloured boy then goes to his presumable
boyfriends house and all is well until the white boy’s dad finds the two men in bed
together. This then leads to another disruption as this gets leaked around the school and
bullying, leading to what looks like depression as he is seen to be lonely, vulnerable and
scared. This in turn leads to an attempt to repair the damage. In the video it is
simultaneously seen that the dad sees the black mans running coach to speak about the
boy, in order to get to know the situation better to repair their relationship together. At
the same time, it is seen that the black man gets a gun and starts crying. The gun is then
pointed at him in the mirror, suggesting he is weak and ready to commit suicide, this is
followed by more shots of him playing with the gun and in the end, putting it to his own
head. Then, we see the two homosexual men getting married, this shows the new
equilibrium. It shows a fresh slate and that the 2 family's have gotten to grips that their
sons love each other. The narrative reinforces the 5 stages of Todorovs’ theory very
clearly and it is obvious what the narrative is. The narrative links heavily with the lyrics
and has a very meaningful and serious message.
Equilibrium: Start;
growing up, getting
into school.
Disruption: Father
finds out his son is gay,
gets upset.
Recognition: Runs away
to (Boy)friends house /
doesn't return home
Disruption: Other
boy’s dad finds out and
gets around school,
leads to bullying.
Repair: Thinking
about suicide, Dad
finds more out/tries
getting back
together with son
New
Equilibrium: Two
homosexual men
get married and
acceppted
3. In Logic’s hit, the hero is the young,
black man. The ‘hero’ of videos
usually seek something from
someone or something, this case
being love. Another character type
from Propp’s theory is the villain. The
villain being the two parents as they
seek to block the young men’s
requests of being together. The
donor of the video is probably the
young, white man. He gives the black
man the attraction to love him. The
other character types are hard to find
in music viseos as the narrative can
only be short and clear, in order for
the audience to get the message.
Propp and Todorov
Propp’s theory links the narrative to
character types and what they significantly
do to affect the story. Character types in
music videos can be less obvious as the
singer and producer have a shorter aount
of time to fill as opposed to a film. This
means that some genres of music lack
clear narrative and don’t even have
character types.
4. StraussThe video represents a lot
of binary opposites
throughout the video. The
obvious ones being
heterosexual against
homosexual, black against
white and old against
young.
The clear binary opposite is to do with
sexual orientation. The heterosexual
people in the video; the parents and
people at school react very differently
to the homosexual people. Firstly, the
straight people are disgusted by the fact
their sons are gay. This results to one of
the gay men to run away because he
feels stressed and probably scared that
his Dad found out. In the video, the
heterosexual parents and school
students have power over the
homosexual man, just because he is gay.
Another binary opposite is
black against white. The black
homosexual is treated worse
than the white homosexual.
However, i think Logic wanted
to get across the point that
black, homosexuals get it far
worse then white ones in
America. Furthermore, in the
video, the white family don’t
really react to the finding of
their son being gay although
their is a shot which shows
disbelief on the dad’s face.
The black man’s dad, however,
questions his son and shouts
at him. This leads the black
homosexual running away.
Also, the black man gets
bullied and has homosexual
sex toys put in his locker to
wind him up and put him
down.
The old against young
binary opposite is quite
vague but shows how
older people tolerate
homosexuality compared
to younger people. The
older generation are a lot
more supportive, shown
in the marriage scene,
than younger people
who try and get others
down.
5. Uses and gratification Theory(UGT)
UGT is all about how the viewer/audience
interpret the media and what they d with it.
This song is heavily advertised on the likes of
Youtube for it’s message and lyrics. Many fans
of Logic are based in his birth country America
and with the title of the song being the US
suicide hotline, his American fans will straight
away know that it is a serious song. People
probably watch the video and listen to the
song in order to share the message, instead of
listening to it because of it’s catchy chorus
and hook.
This song is perfect for people
suffering from mental health issues
as the lyrics are sung from the
viewers perspective with personal
pronouns such as ‘I’ being used a
lot. This makes the song feel more
relatable to said viewer and allows
them to reflect on the message and
hopefully get help.
A huge amount of people listen to the song
and watch the video on Youtube. Logic has
used his platform to allow more coverage to
be put onto more serious issues instead of
normal rap artists who sing about woman and
money.
