Research Into Similar Products: Narratives

Music videos have a wide variety of content and these tend to include either a narrative, a live performance or both. Sometimes when a video contains a narrative, it can be linked to the song based on theme, or song content or just simply based on an interpretation of the song. Elvis Costello uses a narrative for his video Watching The Detectives which follows a detective and some criminal and mysterious activities that occur, so links closely to the lyrics and title of the song quite nicely. Costello does not appear in this video and so keeps it's focus solely on the narrative. I plan to use this type of narrative for my own video as it will help reflect the emotion of the song and won't draw too much attention away from the song and story so will have the desired effect I would like. 




Performance can also be linked into the narrative of a music video, just as Nik Kershaw does in his video for The Riddle. The video follows Kershaw being involved in a physical riddle and trying to find his way out whilst singing the song. This method unifies the narrative and the song and makes the link between the two very clear for the viewer, whilst showing the importance of the artist themself.



Another way in which performance and narrative can be linked is through the use of cuts to performance in between the narrative. This is the case in the Smashing Pumpkins video for Bullet With Butterfly Wings as, from my own interpretation, it follows a group of workers who have been treated unfairly and throughout cuts to shots of the band performing, mostly of Corgan singing. The rage shown by the 'workers' in the video matches the powerful emotion shown through the song and so the video helps to emphasise the emotion. 




Many videos simply feature a performance which reflects the bands passion for their own track. This was done by Oasis for their video Whatever as it shows them enjoying themselves whilst performing their track and therefore shows the link between the song and the band as it shows how they are freely enjoying what they do.