2. Aims of a music video
• A music video must overall sell the artist and
the song.
• It should showcase the star, which can include
the star within the narrative.
• Reflect the lyrics of the song.
• Must underscore the music, this is cutting the
film so that the music matches it.
3. Narrative
• Connection maybe made between the title of the song and the images you see.
• Narratives aren’t usually fully developed, and tens to be tragic and therefore
possess a hint of inevitability.
• Often the repetitive chorus of the song helps us focus upon the narrative
trajectory.
• Music videos are accompanied by visual imagery, the lyrics keeping us moving
forward.
• Lyrics can serve the narrative, but in a partial, incomplete manner as they don’t tell
a full story most of the time.
• Most music videos include stories that are enigmatic at the ending.
• Its important to note when editing the narrative to figure out when to cut back to
the star and having them singing to centralise them within the video.
• Most videos choose to suggest a hint of a story and let the story remain ascendant.
• Viewers may watch the music video many times to interpret the story where there
isn’t one.
• A filmmaker may create continuity through moments of narrative closure or
revelation that are satisfying but do not take over the action.
4. Are you gonna go my way
• The narratives devices are subliminal.
• The video is ostensibly a performance tape.
• This video had an absence of narrative and
therefore used quick shots of the band.
• Having no narrative means you have to
constantly make shots of your band different
to keep your audience interested.
5. The absence of narrative
• The video must have some substance and
have some relevant meaning to you, such as
lyrics.
• Giving meaning to a video can help an
audience find their own meaning for your
video that’s personal to them.
• With a video without a narrative the audience
can take notes of the shift of events and time
but cannot fill in the context.
6. Jean-Jacques Nattiez
• This theorist argues that if there is a narrative
within music, it is only because the listener put it
there.
• Music has no way of communicating a past tense,
and is instead always in present tense, a
technique commonly used in literary narrative.
• He also points out that music may unleash in the
listener different behaviours such as a metal song
could make you feel passionate.
7. Types of non-narrative
• Often the video will focus on a single task e.g.
ensuring the plant gets off the ground when the
baby is born.
• The performers may walk through a series of
tableau.
• The singer may also recount a series of memories
from past relationships.
• They may show a series of events.
• Some are based on tableau such as My Chemical
Romance – Ghost Of You who rein acted Saving
Private Ryan which is a war film.
8. • Music videos encourage us early on to seek
out a narrative, and by the videos close, they
suggest something crucial has transpired. The
questions the audience poses is where, when
and how the event occurs.
9. Andrew Goodwin – Dancing in the
distraction factory
• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics for
example, a heavy metal video with usually has a
performance with head banging.
• There is a connection between the lyrics and the visuals.
• You expect genre characteristics
• The demands of the record label will include the need of
close-ups of the artist. The artist may develop motifs
which reoccur throughout their work.
• There is also the usual voyeuristic treatment of the
female body within music videos.
• There is also often references to films within a music
video.
10. • It is also worth considering whether the video
is primarily performance based, narrative
based or concept based and how elements of
each are used in it.
