NARRATIVE

WHAT IS A NARRATIVE Narrative is the way the story is told in

a media texts. The narrative in a music video, is their

to give information about who, the Artist is, what is happening the music video?.

This is constructed through the media language: sound, colour, lighting, Mis en scene and camera shots and movements.

It organizes time and space in a compressed form.

Narrative is made up of, Todorov, levi-strauss, Binary opposite, Barthes and propp.

Propp- described recurrent sets of characters who appear in narratives based on what roles they play.

Todorov – described three phases that tend to occur in all stories, although not necessarily in the order we see them. (equilibrium-disruption and re-equilibrium)

Levi-Strauss- described binary oppositions that he felt were central to all texts allowing conflicts to be generated, giving a plot something to drive it.

Barthes- came up with enigma codes-stories raise question that we need answer to. These keep us hooked but should be resolved by the end of the story.

Narrative devices may also be used to help tell a story- for example: flash forward, flash backs.

These ideas are very easy to appeal to film and TV texts but are not always so easy to apply to music videos. Music videos can have a significant element of narrative in them that will use some of these ideas but some are performance based and yet others combine narrative and performative elements. So, sometimes the narrative theories above may not seem to apply very well.

Andrew Goodwin came up with seven features that he felt typified music video narrative:

There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.

There is a relationship between the music and the visuals.

Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography.

There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist.

The artist may develop their own star iconography.

There is likely to be reference to voyeurism

There are likely to be intertextual references.

Plot

Protagonist In room packing, then walks out of the house. Zooms in on holiday brochures they left behind.

Goes in to time time square, looks around, somehow is looking lost.

Dance sequence’s with famous people (mask) showing how they enjoying America.

Clips of spinning around with fireworks in background.

America themed party (maybe) Cuts back to her being at home reading the

brochure, The End.

Typical narrative of our Music Video

• The narrative of our music video is quiet challenging, because instead of following the structure of Todorov: Equilibrium, disruption and re-equilibrium. We would want to start it with some sort of equilibrium, were the Protagonist, is in America, and they enjoying themselves there but at the end its all a dream. So the structure is Equilibrium, ‘going to America’ a disruption, its just a dream and re-equilbrium, not in America, but everythings is back to her original life. • Our text will follow typical narrative pattern, but not all, yes we will have the Propp, having the characters playing their role, we have the todrov which is explained in the above paragraph, Barthes, their won’t be as many enigmas as our research but definatly have some and levi-strauss, we wont have Binary opposite because none is needed.

Rihanna: Man Down The narrative in this music video, is what we would

want to follow, because instead of a beginning middle and an end, the music video starts from the end when Rihanna kills the man, leaving the audience with the enigma ‘why did she shoot him’ and then throughout the video we see why? And what made her shoot the man.

At the beginning of this music video, we get a close up of a man’s face and then Rihanna looking down at him. The audience get a feeling that something is up, because Rihanna looks a mess, (which she usually does not) so something had happen between these two people. Then Rihanna pulls out a gun and shoots the man.

At the beginning we get the Levi-Strauss. But it challenges it by making the main artist, which supposing to be good, is actually bad because she shot a man down, and the audience think of the man that got shot as bad, however at the end the main artist gets the credit because she ends up being raped and the audience do not feel so sorry for the man, and instead feel sorry for Rihanna.

We get a slight idea of the Propp: We see this man being a victim, getting shot by Rihanna, making Rihanna being a ‘bad’ character in her music video, which rarely happens. Her iconography is positively Bold, independent, nice and good-looking, type of person, that you would want to be friends with.

After the shooting, the story then begins, “yesterday morning.” Then we gradually see the Rihanna we all know, her walking around having a laugh with her friends/family, she's well known within the society she is in. But we still left with the enigma.

“There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.” “mama, mama, mama

I just shot a man down I didn't mean to lay him down But it's too late to turn back now Don't know what I was thinking Now he's no longer living So I'm 'bout to leave town” Here we can see that the lyrics and the visual has a relationship, because the main

artist is not herself, she feeling guilty killing the man, and does not know what to do, as you can read from the lyrics. In the visual below you can see how upset and lost she is, because of the whole situation and because of this you feel sorry for her. Even though, as an audience you don’t know the reason why she had shot the man down until the end, but the lyrics are giving the audience the message that it is not entirely her fault.

“There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist.”

Through out the music video you see close-ups and medium shots of the artist. What she feeling and her facial reactions, also to show the audience of her location.

• There is a equilibrium, disruption and a re-equilibrium. However its all in a different order. We see at the beginning, a Disruption, (which we also see at the end), Rihanna shooting the man. And then yesterday morning, we see her happy and cheerful, this is the equilibrium, every ones happy, cheerful. Then the second disruption. You see Rihanna going in to some house party, having laugh, dancing around. Then we see the man again, coming up to Rihanna, having a dance.

The disruption starts when Rihanna pushes the Man away from her, and walks out of the place. The Man asks for the direction of which way she went, and here the audience gets the message that he’s up to know good.

Then finally we realise what has caused her to shoot the Man.

“There is likely to be reference to voyeurism”

We can see this by how women are treated in this video. Hopeless towards men, like a victim towards them, and men to be aggressive and a bully, with the wrong intentions towards women.

At the end of this music video we see Rihanna running through a path/street. To her house and pulls out a gun. To get revenge. There is not re-equilibrium, because you just see her in a boat, running away. So everything is not back to normal, and because of disruption, her life has changed.

Beyonce: If I were a Boy.

I chose Beyonce -If I were a Boy, because it has a very good story-line to it. Something that you could relate to in real life, and their’s alot of messages sent out of this music video. Lyrics and visuals both has a relationship, but this is shown at the end, and there’s a close up on the main Artist and Actor.

Beyonce Iconography is again Bold, Independent Woman, Amazing and a Dream Woman. This music follows everthing in a music video, which makes it enjoyable to watch.

Here we see the Propp- the Guy who is playing as Beyonce Boyfriend is in the kitchen making breakfast, which the audience think, Wow how sweet. Then you see Beyonce coming in take a piece of toast and leave’s and come back dressed as a police officer, then we get the idea that she is playing a Male character, because police are sterotyped as being mostly men. So we know what role each character is playing.

We dont really have Todorov’s sequnces going on because of the lyrics we already have an idea that this video is some sort of disruption, that these two people are not happy with something. You could however say that this music video starts with an equilibrium, because it’s sets the scene, two people living together, they’re unhappy, will the video end up with the Actors being happy?

At the beginning the audience are introduced wih the character and there facial expressions gives that they do not care or something is definatley up and what Andrew Goodwins says that the visual and the lyrics have a relationship, but in this music video there is a twist where there is no connection with the lyrics and the visual untill the end. The music the visuals has a relationship, which you can see in this music video, it is quiet a sad music which the audience’s get staright away, and also the low key lighting, which gives the impression of a dull, sad world, which also affects the auience thinking on how the video is going to be like, because they know what to expect so there’s not many enigmas in this video, but alot going on which grabs the audience’s attention, is that they eager to know what is going to happen at the end. Do they live happy ever after? Do they seperate?

Here the story tells the audience of what is wrong with these two people, we see the guy being faithful, which usually does not happen,especially in America, and he’s their sitting in his office doing his work, and thinking of buying Beyonce a present. Beyonce is their getting checked out by her partner flirting around and totally being unfaithful and their we get the disruption of this music video. Beyonce is their cutting her mans phone calls off, and he’s their doin his work.

Here we see everthing in action, their beyonce is dancing of with her partner and her man watching, sje relises and comes up to him and he backs of. We get the story but the lyrics of this song does not make sense to the video, beyonce is actually being the unfaithful one, and the lyrics is about how men treat women, and she’s making herself look bad and we feel sorry for her man.

Also we see a clear levi-strauss because its faithful vs unfaithful, a relationships which lacks honesty, a good person has to cope with a bad person.

The music stops and we have a little scene, which beyonce and the actor has a talk about the way she been acting at the party and then the story tells what actually happens, that the guy is actually the unfaithful one.

In the morning we see beyonce in her office clothes and the guy in the police uniform. So there is still a disruption maybe an re-equilibrium, because not everythings back to normal, but some bits are.

CONCLUSION

These two music video are both very different and follow some of the narrative structure but put in a different sequence. There is a formula in both the music video but it is not clear at first, you have to watch the video till the end to get the full story, which is good and what we would like to have in our narrative. Also a lot is going on in both the video, which is our key point to grab the audience.

I wouldnt say there is a repeated patteren because there is one own structure that they follow to present their story/ music video, and we get the beginnig shown at the end.