This document discusses Vladimir Propp's character theory which identifies 8 character types that are commonly found in narratives. It then examines 3 music videos to see how many of Propp's character types are present. The Taylor Swift music video for "You Belong With Me" contains 3 of the types: the princess, hero, and villain. The Kodaline video for "All I Want" contains 4 types: the princess, hero, villains, and helper. Finally, the Neon Trees video for "Animal" contains varying character types depending on the viewer's perspective. In conclusion, music videos in the singer/songwriter genre tend to use 3-4 of Propp's character types to keep the narrative simple within the limited

1. VLADIMIR PROPP’S
CHARACTER THEORY

2. Vladimir Propp based his theory on
traditional folk tales and determined that
there are eight character types in a narrative.
These heavily influenced Hollywood so are
really clear in films but I wanted to see if they
were present in music videos.

3. THE CHARACTER TYPES
• The Villain – fights the hero.
• The Hero/Victim – Reacts to donor, fights the villain, weds the princess.
• The False Hero – Takes credit for the hero’s actions or attempts to wed the princess.
• The Donor – Donates an object (usually magical) to assist the hero and prepares the hero to fight
the villain.
• The Dispatcher – Character who makes the villain’s evil known and sends the hero off for battle.
• The (Magical) Helper – Helps the hero in the quest.
• The Princess/Prize – The hero deserves her/it throughout but evil (conventionally from the villain)
prevents this. Success is usually signified by the marriage/acceptance of the princess/prize, thus
overcoming evil and the villain and achieving ‘Happily Ever After’.
• The Princess’ Father – Gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero and awards the
princess/prize.

4. THE CHARACTER TYPES IN SINGER/SONGWRITER MUSIC VIDEOS
I started with looking at Taylor Swift’s You Belong With Me a
narrative video following a high school love story. Taylor Swift is
the princess in this video, conventionally pretty and awarded to
the hero at the end. The boy’s girlfriend is perceived as the
villain as she prevents Swift and her boyfriend from being an
‘item’. The boy is the hero and fights the villain to be awarded
with the princess. Although they do not wed at the end, the
kiss is just as significant for the age group of high school
students and the demographic (pre-teens/teens) that the music
video is aimed at. Although these were the only characters in
the music video, therefore resulting in only three out of eight
character types being used.

5. THE CHARACTER TYPES IN SINGER/SONGWRITER MUSIC VIDEOS
Looking at Kodaline’s All I Want
(Part One and Two) There is a
similar character structure to Taylor
Swift. The deformed male is the
hero, the (conventionally) blonde is
the princess, the co-workers/bullies
are the villains and the dog is the
helper (as it keeps the hero happy
and encourages the hero to carry
on despite the villains actions).
Again there is no wedding but there
is a sense of unity at the end, the
princess is no longer scared of the
hero and befriends him. The sense
of friendship and the possibility of
love satisfies the viewer and is the
equivalent to a marriage. Again
there is such a small amount of
characters within the narrative that
there are only four character types
of Propp’s theory used.

6. THE CHARACTER TYPES IN SINGER/SONGWRITER MUSIC VIDEOS
Finally I looked at Animal by Neon
Trees. It depicts a story of where
the band reinvent traditional bland
pieces of art. There is
intertextuality with famous pieces
of art being referenced (such as
Pollock) which relies on the
audiences cultural capital to
understand the reference. The
band acts as a hero or false hero as
they could be ‘saving’ art or
‘destroying’ it. The exhibition
visitors could also be see either as
the victims or the heroes. This
depends on the viewpoint of the
audience therefore the video is
polysemic and the character types
vary depending on who you are.

7. CONCLUSION
Overall there are really simple character types in narrative
videos for the singer/songwriter genre. They conform to
Propp’s character types but to keep it simple they only use
about 3-4 due to the small amount of time they have to
convey a story. For this reason I will consider the amount of
characters and plot line of my music video to prevent
confusing the viewer.