2. Music Video Examples
Justin Timberlake – Cry Me River (Narrative)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DksSPZTZES0#
Song with a narrative element
Eminem – Not Afraid (Part Performance… Part conceptual)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5-yKhDd64s
Song with performance element
REM – Everybody Hurts (Conceptual)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rOiW_xY-kc
Conceptual Music Video
3. Narrative Music Video
Justin Timberlake – “Cry Me a River”
The protagonist’s girlfriend has been
seen leaving with another man by
someone who was sent to spy on them
He breaks into his girlfriends
house, aiming to trash the house in an
act of revenge.
He films himself with another girl at the
house, to get back at his cheating
girlfriend.
A narrative music
video essentially tells
a story. They are
important because
they create a
narrative strand,
usually relating to the
lyrics of the song, in
which people are able
to identify with it.
4. Performance Videos
Eminem – “Not Afraid”
Performance based music videos are
essentially used just to promote the artist.
Dyer’s theory states that a stars image is not
of a real person, but is constructed out of a
range of material (such as adverts) to improve
marketability and appeal to a target audience.
A performance based video helps establish a
star image by making the artist central, which
emphasises their presence.
Performance based videos are relatively cheap
and easy to produce, which may be a reason
why many new artists use videos of this
element.
5. Conceptual Music Videos
REM – “Everybody Hurts”
This video shows many people stuck in traffic, which
symbolically shows that everybody gets problems
and become stuck with them. It also shows that
many people have the same problems, but are yet
isolated from each other.
In the video, we then see the people get out of there
cars and walk down the road, which is a symbol of
hope, that people who are dealing with problems
can come together to solve their issues.
Conceptual videos sometimes give a message to the audience. They often have a
symbolic meaning which represents a larger idea. Other times, however, the concepts
are abstract, which may make the message difficult to spot; in many cases they may
not even have a literal representation. Conceptual videos also give the music video
producer the chance to have fun and be creative.
6. Influence
We were influenced by the Justin Timberlake video
as we wanted to show a story, that people will be
able to recognise.
Justin’s video is heartfelt and shows a strong story
which some people can relate to.
We want to give our audience a similar viewing
experience as to the one Justin’s video gives.
We don’t feel like we were influenced much by the
Eminem video, this is because we don’t necessarily
feel the need to promote ourselves, yet it is an
easier and cheaper way to shoot a music video. The
main aspect of performance we hope to use is
dance, rather than singing to a camera, which we
may include.
We were influenced by the REM video as we want to
give a meaning to our video, just like the REM video
did. We don’t want to just make a video for the sake
of it, which is why we want to give a meaning to it.
We do want to have fun and be creative, which will
help give a conceptual message through the music
video.
Dyer’s theory suggests that a stars
image is not of a real person, but is
created from material, such as
adverts etc. This is partly the reason
that we do not want to include a lot
performance elements, such as
singing to a camera because the
audience may not feel like they can
relate to our video if the actors
come across “fake”.
