Music Video Analysis: Narrative and Genre

Narrative

Me and my group have agreed on focusing on the genre of 'Indie Rock' as this is the type of music we can all agree that we like and would like to work with. In order to get a feel of the videos that go with this genre, we did a task on narrative: Propp, Strauss and Todrov. We had to apply these narrative theories to 5 videos that we chose. I chose to look at videos for:

The 1975 - Robbers

The Neighbourhood - Let it Go

Alt-J - Breezeblocks

Bastille - Bad Blood

Kodaline - High Hopes
Todrov believes that the narrative in films, videos etc goes in the order of there being an equilibrium then a disruption to the equilibrium, a recognition an attempt to repair and then a new equilibrium.
Propp on the other hand believes that there will always be characters in a text consisting of a hero, villain, princess, helper, donor, father and dispatcher.
Strauss believes that there are binary opposites, for example, good vs bad.
Barthes talks about and expands on the idea of codes, with a main one being the enigma code. 

The 1975 - Robbers

Todrov - 

Equilibrium: At the start of the video you can see the couple together where they look happy and in love doing many different things like laughing, dancing, smiling etc.

Disruption: He has a gun and they are planning to and go to rob a shop. He drinks and smokes a lot and gets shot when going to rob the shop. 

Recognition: Girl seems to start worrying shown by her facial expressions, especially when he holds the gun at her as a joke. 

Attempt to Repair: After the robbery they escape and go back home and she tries to heal his wound. 

New Equilibrium: They now have a lot of money because of the robbery and after the girl sees that she nearly lost him, they 'kiss and make up' 

Propp -  

The main singer Matt plays both the hero and the villain, he is a villain as he robs a shop and would have scared many people and would have threatened lives to get the money he got. But he could be seen as a hero as he survives a gun shot and is the main actor/character that is on a quest to rob a shop. The princess is played by the girlfriend as she is Matt's lover but she is not the one who needs saving, in fact it is Matt whom needs saving. The girlfriend can also been seen as a helper as she helps Matt rob a shop and helps heal his wound, also the rest of the band who plays Matt's friends in the video can be seen as helpers as they drive the get away vehicle and help Matt get to safety.

Strauss -

The binary opposite could be male v. woman as she is not a huge fan of this plan (shown by her facial expressions) and Matt seems to be the bigger fan and planner of the robbery.

Barthes - 

Engima is created in this video via the use of edits as edits create a sense of flashbacks. For instance, when there is a camera shot of a red (blood) handprint, the viewer is wondering why the is there and ponder what has happened. Also enigma is also created via the use of camera shots/movement, for instance when Matt gets shot and is running out of the shot the handheld camera movement creates a sense of urgency and the viewer does not know whether he is going to be alright. 

The Neighbourhood - Let it Go

Todrov - 

Equilibrium: The women seem to have normal but very robotic lives, doing typical feminine roles like cooking but they look happy.

Disruption: The women realise they aren't necessarily happy having to do the same old typical female roles, they recognise this mainly around the men. The disruption can be that their emotions is ruining this 'happy' supposedly normal lifestyle, shown by the black and white contrast and different facial expressions.*
Recognition*

Attempt to Repair: The women seem to do certain actions in their thoughts that they would not be able to do in real life. (Although this is not a real attempt to repair as everything is just being masked over and ignored, the cause is not being dealt with or destroyed)

New Equilibrium: At the end of the video it all goes back to 'normal' but it will never really be different as this is society and women are living a façade. 

Propp - 

The villain seems to be society and men as society expects women to do the stereotypical female jobs like cook etc and men also expect the stereotypical roles of women like looking after them etc. The princess is the females in the video as they need help/rescuing from society and their horrible emotions/feelings.

Strauss -

Happiness v. Anger/sadness
Another binary opposite is the idea of what society and men see (the white, high key lighting frames) opposed to how the women actually feel (the dark, low key lighting)

Barthes -

Enigma in this video is mainly created through lighting and edits this is due to one minute there is high key lighting and then edited to low key lighting where there are 2 completely contrasting emotions. Enigma is created as one does not know why/what has made this emotions have occured.

Alt - J - Breezeblocks

Todrov - 

Equilibrium: There is no real equilibrium at the start as it goes straight to disruption as this video works backwards. 

Disruption: He has killed the woman (whom looks like she has come to save his partner from the domestic relationship), as shown by the video being introduced with a dead woman being held down dead in a bath by a block. And he is on the floor holding his head upset.

Recognition: He recognises this disruption as he is crying on the bathroom floor.

Attempt to Repair: At the end he is trying to console his wife/partner but she is not listening and he walks out of the door. But if this is played backwards he is walking through the door and goes to the closet where she is hidden.

New Equilibrium: A woman is dead.

Propp - 

The villain is the boyfriend/husband as he produces some form of domestic violence which eventually leads to a woman's death. The princess is his wife/girlfriend as she needs saving from him. There is also a hero as the woman who dies in the end, has come to try and save the woman whom is being locked in a cupboard by the assumed partner.

Strauss -

Man and woman - Men are the stronger sex and control the women more and women are the weaker sex.

Barthes -

Enigma in this video is created due to the editing as the video is in a non chronological order and everything is happening backwards, so we start with looking at a dead woman in a bath but do not know how it has happened so enigma is created to find out why it has happened. Enigma is also created as not many answers are given and some things can be very hard to make out, so as well as enigma one can feel confused.

This is a good video, but it is very confusing as it is hard to make out who is who and what has actually started to happen. But if you watch this video in reverse you see that a woman comes in and sees the other woman being held up in the cupboard by the assumed boyfriend so tries to save her, resulting in her death. 

Bastille - Bad Blood

Todrov - 

Equilibrium: The girl is on her own, quite content in the garden 

Disruption: The TV shows a missing man and she seems to be somewhat involved or in some form of relationship with him

Recognition: She sees the TV with the missing man and the police lights outside the house

Attempt to Repair: Gets rid of his stuff in a box by putting it in the same place that he went missing (in the ocean)

New Equilibrium: Still alone but living with guilt, as shown by all the thoughts she has of him and her facial expressions.

Propp - 

It is very ambiguous so the woman may be a villain but she may not be as we do not know the full story, hence why it is ambiguous. 

Strauss -

There was no real binary opposites. But it could be argued that there is good v. evil as at the start something good comes from something evil and at around the end the couple get killed which is a bad thing but when it happened something good was happening between the couple - love. 

Barthes -

Enigma in this video is from the mise en scene mainly, for instance the tv reports of a missing man and the woman in the garden alone, the police lights outside, the man with a hood over his face, the sea. All of these elements create mise en scene as clear answers are not given and one wants to find out how everything links together. 

Kodaline - High Hopes

Todrov - 

Equilibrium: She saves the man from killing himself and he saves her from a marriage which she does not want to be part of (we eventually learn that it was an abusive partnership)

Disruption: *
Recognition: When they are alone he sees bruises on her back which is where we learn it was a abusive relationship later on the ex partner shoots both of the couple *

Attempt to Repair: He holds her hand as they lie there bleeding and then go to the hospital

New Equilibrium: They get to be together in some way even though she is dead and he is alive.

Propp - 

The hero and princess are both the man and woman as they both needed saving and they saved each other and they were a prize for one another. The villain is the ex partner as he used to abuse the woman and kills both of them by shooting them.

Strauss - 

Life and death - at the end where he is alive and she is dead 
Another binary opposite is that how something so wonderful came from something so miserable and daunting (unwanted wedding and attempted suicide)

Barthes -

Enigma is not really created as the ending is very unexpected as there were no real clues that their death was going to happen and when. 

Genre

Genre is a certain type of media text and is the way in which we categorise a media text.

What elements?

- Setting            - Narrative

- Iconography   - Characters

- Themes          - Mise en scene 
This links in with what Gunther Kress said about their being common ingrediants in a genre - 'A kind of text that derives its form from the structure of a (frequently repeated) social occasion, with its characteristic participants and their purposes' 

Why important for audiences?

- Idenification       -Preference 

- Social                - Escapism

- Entertainment   - Information

So they know what to expect and that the text meets their expectations and that there is something out there for everyone to enjoy like Christine Gledhill said, 'Differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered to' Audience also links in with why genres are consistently changing/evolving because audiences change - Andrew Goodwin. 

Why is it important for producers?

- Know what kind of things to include in the text
- Know what things are typical of the genre and know whether to include certain elements in the text (it is a clear blueprint/guideline)
- Clear demographics
- Plan what going to do
- Know what times to put it on, e.g. a tv programme. If it is in the thriller genre they will know not to put it on at the time where children are still awake
- Economy
What Denis McQuail said about Genre being a blueprint to make a product links in with this as producers can gain more audience and money as they will be appealing to the right people by using the right elements. It is also practical for producers as Nicholas Abercrombie said that because genres use roughly the same things each time it is economically sensible, 'Sets, properties and costumes can be used over and over again' 

What the main elements/ingredients were that we found in our genre:

We all came together with each of our 5 videos and looked at them all and made a note of what elements regularly occurred in our genre. Some of the videos put together overall as a group were: Jake Bugg 'Seen it all', Arctic Monkeys 'Black Treacle', The Vaccines 'Post-break up sex'. 

Clothing: The clothing that is very typically worn in our genre I have noticed to be is -
                - Vest tops
                - Ripped jeans
                - t shirts 
                - Leather jackets
                - Military boots
                - Turn up jeans







Stock settings: (Like Gunther Kress said, there are stock themes that run through a genre)
The settings that are very typically used in our genre I have noticed have been:
- Isolated as the main character seems to be isolated from the world, it also gives more notice to that character or band member as they are the main one that we are looking at.
- Bars/pubs as most of the characters in the videos we have looked at seem to be youths and this is the stereotypical place for young people to go.
- Streets, this adds to the rock edge of the song
- Night time is very typical 
- Home is also a typical stock setting as many scenes take place in a home.

Sound: The typical sound that occurs from the indie rock artists are very independent, edgy, acoustic, sounds as it would as if it was sung live as the music isn't perfected by loads of different producers. There is also a lot of drums, guitars and bass. 

Stock characters: The typical gender for the main character to be is male and they tend to have a female partner (The 1975) and women tend to be the princesses and are the weaker ones and are just there to be with the male character. The characters tend to be isolated or have some form of disruption to their lives which has a big impact (Jake Bugg, Kodaline)

Iconography: The most typical iconography used in our genre has been: 
                           - Alcohol
                           - Cigarettes
                           
                 - Instruments - the instruments are often shown with the band member(s) to                                      emphasise that they are a band/or solo artist whom make their own music                                    and play their own instrunts.

Storyline/Themes: The main storyline/themes that seemed to occur the most were:
 - Relationships and romance, this was a major theme in most of the videos that we had watched. This typically led to a disruption to the relationship and something traumatic. Relationships were shown to be both good and bad in the videos.
- There was a lot of anti social behaviour and the main character had got into quite a lot of trouble (The 1975)
- Violence and sex was a very dominant theme also which fits in with how the characters seem to be youths and sex and violence is a stereotype associated with youths.   
 - There is also a dominant theme of injury/death to give the videos some form of tragedy that will engage the audience more and remember that video, like when I watched Kodaline's High Hopes video. 
Even though one may not have lived through these events one has an understanding for it because it is how it has been portrayed the same throughout the genre - John Fiske 'A representation of a car chase only makes sense in relation to all the others we have seen - after all, we are unlikely to have experienced one in reality...we would understand intertextually, in terms of what we have seen so often on our screens'. It also helps to make one understand - 'Genre is...an intertextual concept' - Katie Wales

Lighting:  The typical lighting seems to be low-key, dark lighting as it most of the time reflects the characters emotions and state of mind and also allows the viewer to know straight away what kind of music video it is and what type of genre it is. It is hardly ever bright, with lots of colour as this genre does not really have colour as an ingredient.