Narrative

 

Todorov

Equilibrium– everything is good

Disequilibrium-something bad happens

Recognition-realising the problem

Reparation-solving the problem

New equilibrium-happy ending

Eg-Nickleback

equilibrium- he is dead and she is sad, gets hit by a car

disequilibrium- she dies in a car crash

recognition- he is dead

 

Propp

• Hero
• Villain
• Donor
• Dispatcher
• False Hero
• Helper
• Princess
• Her Father

Strauss

Narratives are arranged around the conflict of binary opposites.

• Good vs evil
• Protagonist vs antagonist
• Peace vs war

Music Video Analysis- Stay the Night by Zedd ft. Hayley Williams

In this video there is strong presentation of emotion as it is about a couple with the main point of focus being the question of “Are you gonna stay the night”which could be questioning whether or not they are in love due to asking if they are going to stay. This means that a strong sense of emotion in the video is important. It begins slow just showing a close up of Williams as she is singing. It also briefly shows the main artist as he is playing piano and then moves on to show the girl holding a photograph. Perhaps the focus of the video is that the couple broke up and she is missing him and they want to get back together so she is asking “Are you gonna stay the night.”

When the drums come in in the first chorus it shows both the man and the woman both sitting different sofas on blue and red. The sense of emotion comes from the very fast paced dancing on the sofas. Although the emotion between them is passionate they never seem to stay still which enhances the sense of uncertainty between the couple which keeps the storyline in focus.

The pianist is shown frequently but is never the point of focus for any length of time which keeps him being a point of the video but in no way the focus however Williams is shown throughout the majority of the sung parts, especially on the slower parts of the song.

 

Twenty One Pilots: Stressed Out | Music Video Analysis

Stressed out by Twenty One Pilots is a song about desperately wanting to go back to child hood when you had no real worries “Wish we could turn back time to the good old days” and it amplifies this b having the artists riding around on tricycles whilst wearing backpacks which would often be associated with children and childhood. The lyrics of the song are very strongly linked to the visual because of this and it illustrates his point very effectively. During the choruses the video shows them actually performing their songs, the first one in the singer’s bedroom and the second in the drummer’s bedroom which again links to the idea of childhood as they would’ve played in their rooms and for only for the pre-choruses does the singer stop syncing as this is the bit where they go from riding the bikes into the house.

The camera angles used are generally from a low point of view or at eye level which could be to reinforce the idea that they have grown up and that they are no longer children despite their desperate longing. The lighting of video is generally quite grim and seems to use a greyscale effect which enhances their resentment of growing up and as a result their unhappiness “But now we’re stressed out.”

The video includes the artists’ families towards the end but throughout the entire video they are the main focus as they are talking about their own personal struggles of growing up and how they want to go back to childhood. Overall the song is very relatable as it is talking about the stresses of growing up and that nostalgic feeling when you smell something from your childhood and I think that this video captures the meaning of the song very well.

Andrew Goodwin: Codes and Conventions of Music Videos

1992 “Dancing in the Distraction Factory”

Andrew Goodwin theorized 6 different conventions:

1. Thought beat-Link between the audio and visual

2. Narrative and performance– the narrative will have a story.

3. Star image-Videos are used to promote the artist so by giving the artist the most screen time they are able to build up a connection between the artist and the audience

4. Relations of visual to song:

• Disjuncture-meaning of the song is ignored
• Amplify-Meaning of the song is exaggerated by the visual
• Illustrate- meaning of song is made clear through visual

5. Technical codes– camera angle, lighting, editing etc work together to create meaning for the video

6. Often intertextual reference– A music video shows images from other media products such as films or music videos and TV programmes.