The document discusses several narrative theories and how they apply to the Jessie J music video for "Price Tag". It analyzes how the video uses props like money and a teddy bear to create realism for the audience and communicate Jessie J's message about societal pressures to spend money. The narrative draws upon classic story types like Cinderella and operates through binary oppositions of rich vs poor. Overall, the video tells a clear story through Jessie J's performance that critiques the priority placed on wealth in society.

1. Example of narrative theory.
Lewis Stewart.

2. Verisimilitude.
• This is how real the video seems to be to the
audience, which allows them to understand
the video as they can relate to aspects of what
they see/hear.
• This may be in the props used, the costumes
in that appear in the video (which could
present a person in a specifc way –
stereotypes) or what is sung.

3. • These images all create verisimilitude to the
audience because they are things that they see a
lot and may have. The price tag is relevant to the
song due to the lyrics of it, the money on trees
symbolises how people just spend whatever
money they have on anything, and the car
represents what people could save for.

4. Tim O’Sullivan.
• “all media texts tell the audience a story in
some way”. This is the way that the music
video tells the audience something about the
society we live in.
• This theory happens in music videos with
narratives because the story told is easily read
by the audience, and is therefore understood
by the audience in the way the artist and
institution has intended.

5. • This video is about people spending money on
things that they don’t need, and how she believes
that people should only spend money necessarily.
I think this would make people believe that Jessie
J doesn’t want everyones money and therefore
makes the artist more desirable as it seems she is
in the industry more for the music rather than
other things.
• This is because she says in the song ‘it’s not about
the money’, suggesting that this isn’t her main
focus.

6. • In the video, I think that Jessie J is trying to tell
the audience something about the society we live
in today.
• I think that the reference to the ‘price tag’ is her
way of telling the people that the world’s focus is
money, which she is saying she doesn’t agree
with due to her referring money.
• I think that the video could also be a way of
referring to how people are labeled by their
popularity, but how she disagrees with this and
that people are worth the same, and to ditch the
labels.

7. Pam Cook.
• “The standard Hollywood narrative should
have;
 Linearity of cause and effect within an overall
trajectory of enigma resolution.
 A high degree of narrative structure.
 A fictional world that contains verisimilitude
especially governed by spatial and temporal
coherence”.

8. • The beginning part of the video has an actress
which is supposed to be Jessie J as a child, and
then this girl moves around from the left of
the bear to the right which then the little girl
changes to become a woman; the today’s
Jessie J.

9. • Verisimilitude is shown through the use of the
bear, as I think it symbolises how people hang
on to specific things, from when they were
little up to when they have grown up.
• I think for this song this is also used to
symbolise how children buy things that aren’t
needed (for example lots of sweets), but then
this follows them up to their adulthood, as
they still buy unnecessary things.

10. • The video is very structured in the way the message
is portrayed by the artist in the video. The props
used illustrate how things are represented to people
in society to make them appealing and desirable.
• The bear is used in the video rather than a simple
prop like a wall, as this illustrates the artist’s feelings
on the subject, due to the size and desirability of the
object.

11. Kate Domaille.
• “Every story ever told can be categorised into
one of eight narrative types. Each type has a
source; an original story upon which the
others are based”.
• I think the type that this video fits into is the
‘Cinderella’ one, as this is when the dream
comes true.

12. • This image shows the artist ripping up a large label
with a dollar sign on it. This is used in the video to
illustrate her anger towards labeling and people
judging others, and also purchasing things that aren’t
needed.
• I think the Cinderella type is the one that the video fits
into because of how she is singing about people buying
things and the expense, and also how this relates to
popularity. But then she finishes the video by showing
her anger towards the subject, which makes this the
more memorable idea.

13. Claude Lèvi-Strauss
• “All stories operate to certain clear Binary
Opposites”
• For example: good vs evil, black vs white, rich
vs poor.
• These ideas then mean that the world that is
complicated is then a simplified structure.
They either resolve to be good or bad, right or
wrong; there is no in between.

14. • In this video, it is clear that the artist has
included the binary opposites ‘rich vs poor’.
• This is evident through the lyrics of the song
as the artist says ‘we don’t need your money’,
and is also shown through the use of the price
tag prop.

15. Performance or conceptual?
• This video is clearly a performance, as the artist is
seen to be dancing and lip-sycning.
• This will promote the artist as she isn’t only doing
the singing, she is trying to entertain her
audience by showing her many talents.
• Because she is signed to a major record label, she
had the ability to record her video in various
settings, although she only used a studio setting.
• I think this was a conscious decision by the artist
and/or the institution because it relates to the
lyrics.