Narrative and Performance

Narrative in songs are rarely complete and often fragmented which is also true to music promos, which tend to suggest storylines of other complex fragments in a non-linear order, leaving the viewer with the desire to see them again. As Steve Archer puts it:

"Often music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the 'repeatability' factor."

The artist is also sometimes a part of the story acting as the narrator and the participant at the same time. The video allows the audience more varied access to the performer than a stage performance can. The close-up allowing eye contact and close observation of facial features and role play in a narrative performance present the artist in a number of ways not possible in a live concert.

The mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used:

- As a guarantee of 'authenticity' of a band's musical virtuosity by showing them in a stage performance or rehearsal room.

- To establish a relationship with a familiar film or television genre in a narrative based video

- As a part of the voyeuristic context by suggesting a setting associated with sexual allure, such as a sleazy nightclub or boudoir.

- Or, as John Stewart suggests, emphasising as aspirational lifestyle as in the current emphasis on the latest gadgetry.

Other commentators have identified some other styles in music videos, including gothic, animated, dreamscapes, portraiture, futuristic and home movie. In class we watched the music video "Take Me On" by Aha and directed by Steve Barron:

- This movie starts with drawn moving pictures that look drawn of men on motorbikes and it stays this way until the lyrics start. When they do, a real lady appears in a cafe who is reading the comic strip of these happenings. The drawing of the man escaping the men on motorbikes then comes together with the real life lady; his hand appears from the newspaper and she takes hold of it and then appears in his world. As she then becomes a drawing we see him look as though he's a photo, we then also see some of Aha's band members playing their instruments so this is where the small part of performance appears. The then try to escape from the men on motorbikes by ripping a hole in the newspaper like walls, the girls goes through and lands back in the cafe with everyone in awe of how she got there because they thought she had ran out to not pay the bill (the newspaper was in the bin) but she runs out and goes home. She then takes the newspaper home and reads the rest of the comic to find that the men had caught him but he had got to her bedroom door which he is now at. He then flashes between a drawing and a real person and then eventually turns into a real person as they embrace and we then see the cover of the comic is now them.

And the music video "Every time" by Britney Spears and directed by David LaChappelle:

- The music video starts off with just an instrumental with a view over quite an elaborate city with a poster of her on show, with a notion of looking as people continuously want to take her photo. We then see the storyline pan out as she argues with her boyfriend in the limo and then tries to get into her hotel through the back way through all of her screaming fans with sunglasses and a hat on, implying that she wants to be hidden. This is quite ironic because she sings "notice me" which is what everyone seems to be doing, that even through all of this havoc she feels as though her boyfriend is not noticing her. Her boyfriend is quite aggressive (and so is everything around her with the pushing and shoving) as he first of all hauls a load of magazines with her face on at a person in the paparazzi and then throws him away. The close ups of their faces show the great anger. They then escape to the hotel room but on route bump into confused staff who look surprised to see her again portraying the notion of looking. When they finally arrive in the hotel room the argument continues, he tries to her hug her but she pushes him away. He then throws a plant pot against the wall and she goes to have a bath. She is wearing lingerie and looks quite serene in a clip (where she is against a quite background which is taken from the original cut of the music video wear she sang to camera dressed this way) and then looks in her mirror and begins to undress which is another notion of looking. What she is wearing, seeing her tattoo and her getting into a bath is all quite sexually alluring; the boyfriend also undresses on the coach looking quite defeated. We then see blood on Britney's wrist and a close up of pain on her face, with another clip of her singing to camera in the white room singing in a gentle voice where she wears basically just a simple shirt which is the "performance" part of the song. We see doctors and police men rushing around her in this pristine white room contrasting her falling deeper into her murky bath as all the bubbles come out of her mouth. We then see her run to camera with the light behind her, which implies death and her now in heaven in an out of body situation she sees herself on the hospital bed. The movie then flashes back to her bathroom as her boyfriend rushes to get her out and save her as he cut back to the hospital as she almost narrates the birth of a new baby in the hospital. She is then rushes to the hospital as we once again see the rush of the paparazzi rush around her again in the same panic. The final clip is focussed on the baby and then she suddenly emerges out of her bath back in the hotel room. This section of the clip was not a part of the original music video, it was added because Britney's target audience is mainly young girls so they are very impressionable so for her to die would be traumatic therefore they added her emerging fine from the water.