Music Video Genres

Music Video Pitch & Feed back

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Music Video Pitch







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Music Video Coursework

Narrative Devices

Flashback/ Forward- Skip into the past/future. Example of this is Biggie Smalls 'Juicy'

In this music video featuring Biggie Smalls, there is a clear Flashback and forward Narrative device used, as you can clearly see the scenes alternate between Biggie Smalls living lavish and luxury with his new music career, and on the other hand, it flashes back to when He was living in a lot less luxurious conditions. From '0;00 to 00;20', you can see the transition from his past life hustling on the street curbs to the current, what is seen as getting attention from TV presenters interviewing him, asking him questions prior to his fame. At 1;20, there is a pool party taking place, which is usually associated with popularity, as Biggie Smalls is the one hosting the party, it is clear to say he is admired by many fellow people due to his reputation and status of being a successful Afro American hip hop artist.

Pathetic Fallacy - Weather matches the mood of the scene. Example of this is Devlin Community Outcast.

'Community Outcast' by the UK rap artist Devlin, is a perfect example of a music video, using pathetic fallacy to set the mood for the song. Instantly the Music video denotes at 00:01, the cloudy skies, connoting set up for the rest of the song. At 2:43 you can see and feel an intimate response to the homeless person being neglected by society, and the use of pathetic fallacy contributes to this sentimental feeling we as an audience are inclined to feel, other than just the lyrics of the song we listen to, but also the visual gain we take from seeing the reality of poverty. 

Restricted Narrative - Big Tobz X Blittz - The Move.

This Music video contains various features of a restricted Narrative, as us the audience can only visually see and hear the Narrative taking place from two of the characters, whereas the opposing characters of whom they wish to rob, are not to be seen and we do not see their activity. This seemingly creates more tension, as we have no clear idea of the possible outcomes occurring from this 'Move', as we have no clue whether the other opposing characters are preparing themselves for this terror attack. We are also restricted in the sense, that the two characters are hardly mobile, throughout the music video they are seated without much action, waiting for the perfect time to make the move, this is seen at 2:23, and various other time codes, where they are conversating and plotting on the other character. We only see at the end of the music video of what seemed to happen, but not completely as we had a restricted narrative.overall this creates effective suspense and tension which keeps the audience intrigued.

Todorov, Narrative Structure

Example Eminem Stan.

Eminem's Stan music video is one that shows Todorov's theory very well and thoroughly, by selectively splitting the narrative into 5 parts, being; Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition, restoration and New equilibrium, we can see the various narrative stages the music video goes through. The beginning of the equilibrium is the state at which Stan is initially writing his letters to Eminem, craving his attention from his favourite rapper idol, this is seen at 1:18. The disruption reveals when Eminem unintentionally does not reply to his obsessed fan. The recognition of this disruption is the subsequent response of Stan reacting by losing his mind over his obsession of his idol and results to him gruesomely killing himself, this begins at 2:29 all the way to 3:15. The restoration stage is where Stan kills himself and impregnates his girlfriend and kills himself and his girlfriend, at 3:42 this restoration begins  finishing at 4:35 where the car crashes. At 4:42 is when Eminem replies to all of Stans letters and the beginning of a new equilibrium is when Eminem recognises Stan's suicide and finally gains his attention. This narrative structure is what seems to be very abstract and upsetting.

Character Driven - Propps Theory - Example; Taylor Swift - You belong with me

Vladimir Propp studied hundreds of Russian folk and fairytales before deciding that all narratives have a common structure. He observed that narratives are shaped and directed by certain types of characters and specific kinds of actions. Propp identified seven roles in which any character may play in a story; Villain, donor, helper, princess, dispatcher, hero and false hero. The music video that i am going to be identifying these roles with is Taylor Swifts song 'You Belong With Me', which is a narrative showing a high school romance and love story. In this music video Taylor Swift is the princess,she is seen at 0:26, as a generic convention of this identity, she is innocent and sweet looking aswell as pretty. The boys girlfriend  at 1:34 in the video is recognised as the villain in a sense, as ini tally she prevents the princess Taylor Swift from being together with her boyfriend from high school. In the narrative the Hero who is the boy who is seen at the beginning 0:03, who the princess is in love with, fights the villain protecting the princess, resulting in the princess being rewarded by ending up with the boy. Overall only 3 of the 8 characters have been used, as this is a result of fewer actor being involved, as opposed to a film it is much easier to apply this concept.

Production Log 3

During these past weeks, me and my partner Kassie have been undecided on the music video we are going to chose, due to the fact that we are both unfamiliar with a lot of genres, such as Folk country music, which was our initial idea, also genres such as indie and rock. However personally the only genre i am relatively comfortable with is more towards UK rap and hip hop, due to the very fact these are the music videos i see on a daily basis and listen too. On the other hand Kassie pushes more towards the Pop side of the music genre. Our music video will either be Narrative or performance. Uncertain of which genre we should choose to stick with for our music video, with the devices we have. Here are some ideas of the possible songs we could use;




I contacted SBTV via email, on their website, inquiring if it would be possible to use this song for educational purposes etc, evidence can be given. The music video is nicely paced, and relatively easy to match Visuals with, and have lip synced and link it with a not too complicated video.