I have looked at famous narrative theories in relation to my music video to the song Husbands by Savages

1. Narrative Theories
IN RELATION TO MY MUSIC VIDEO

2. Vladimir Propp
 Studied folktales and legends
 Found that characters tend to be types such as 'the
hero' and 'the villain'. Because he studied
fairytales, many of the characters include types like
'the princess' and 'the false hero'.
 These can be seen in many films, for example ‘Star
Wars’

3. Propp and my music video
 Obviously this is more suited to films than music
videos because a 3 minute video is not long enough
to build up a story including all the different types of
character
 My music video is in contrast to Propp’s theory – I
only have two characters with no clear heroes or
villains. The husband is portrayed in a negative way
but he is not a ‘villain’.
 My video has no clear character types on
purpose, the video is designed to make people think
for themselves.

4. Claude Levi-Strauss
 Structural philosopher
 Interested in how much of the world is described
using opposites.
 He called these ‘binary opposites’, for example:
 night/day
 Good/bad
 Light/dark
 In films this is seen in the classic hero/villain
relationship for example Harry Potter and
Voldemort.

5. Claude Levi-Strauss and my music video
 Again, this theory is not really applicable to my
music video because there are only two characters
and they are not ‘binary opposites’.
 Neither of the characters is good or bad – this is
done on purpose to make audiences think for
themselves which is something that the band
Savages see as important.
 My video is in contrast to Levi-Strauss’s theory

6. Rolande Barthes
 Interested in the negotiated meaning between
institutions and audiences
 Readers make meanings based on previous
experience as well as the text itself, for example the
meaning of a film about airlines will depend on
viewer’s experience of airlines
 The cultural context of consumption is as important
as the context.
 Also wrote about ‘the enigma code’ where there is a
mystery to be solved by the audience, like a cliff-
hanger.

7. Rolande Barthes and my music video
 Parts of this theory do apply to narrative music
videos like mine.
 Because I am using plastic figures the amount of
meaning that audiences can give the video is limited
 However the aspects of the video including the
women’s magazines will have different meanings for
men and women.
 The enigma code is not really relevant apart from the
fact that video should make viewers want to listen to
more Savages music

8. Tzvetan Todorov
 Suggested there were five stages to every narrative:
 Equilibrium  disruption of equilibrium by event 
realisation that disruption has occurred  attempt to repair
damage from disruption  restoration of equilibrium
 He said that this applies to fictional and non-
fictional texts, used by adverts and news broadcasts
as much as in films and TV programmes.

9. Tzvetan Todorov and my music video
 Can be seen in many narrative music videos, for
example Need You by Duke Dumont
 My video is in contrast to Todorov’s equilibrium
theory
 My story starts off with an equilibrium of sorts and
then a disruption. But equilibrium is never restored
at the end.
 I did this on purpose as it may leave the audience
(unused to equilibrium not being restored) feeling
uncomfortable but this will make the video more
memorable and will suit the music.