What is a narrative?
'The way a story is told so that the elements are structured and ordered in such a way that it makes sense to the audience. It has also been described as how events are unified in space and time.' (Leanne Gelder).
How does narrative work in relation to music video?
Often the narrative will relate to the lyrics of the song, I think this is really important, the narrative also needs to fit the mood of the song. Its also really effective when movements and shot transitions/shot lengths align with the tempo and pace of the song, helping the audience to engage with the music video. In most cases the narrative has to be told visually (no dialogue) so the shots and actions of the characters need to be thourily considered.
Music videos can be characterised by 3 broad typologies; narrative, conceptual and performance. Often music videos will cut between narrative and performance: Steve Archer (2004) 'Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be part of the story , acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip synch close-up and the miming of playing instrument s that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it.'
Conventions of narrative
The most common theme in narrative music videos tends to be love stories/romances.
Goodwin (1992), describing Madonna's videos; suggests that the essential narrative component in a music video is to frame the star, as most of Madonna's videos seem to do however I would say this isn't set in stone as I have watched many successful videos that do not have this component or any narrative. The other most common genres of narrative in music video are comedy, drama, horror. I have included some examples of the different conventional genres.
Comedy
The conventions for a comedy music video, as the genre suggests, are funny, jokey and comedic. They will almost always involve the star/singer/band doing funny, strange or weird things. Comedic videos are probably most common in rap genres as it more suits the type of music and artist such as Eminem.
Comedy
The conventions for a comedy music video, as the genre suggests, are funny, jokey and comedic. They will almost always involve the star/singer/band doing funny, strange or weird things. Comedic videos are probably most common in rap genres as it more suits the type of music and artist such as Eminem.
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