How my Music Video uses real videos related to Narrative

My video supports the restricted narration theory. This states that the narrative is kept minimal, with parts of the story unclear and the audience are kept in the dark. The ending of my piece has a twist that the audience wouldn’t have been expecting. Throughout, my performer is dancing and singing to lyrics about a homeless woman in second person tense, referring to the homeless individual as her and she. During the video, we do see her leaning against a wall or fence looking into the distance, but we do not know why she is waiting there. This creates a sense of mystery as the audience begins to wonder why she is standing there and what she is waiting for. However, at the end, she is seen sitting at the edge of the pavement begging for money as she, herself, is the homeless woman she has been singing about. This is a narrative enigma, as this ending contradicts the happy performer we see previously. This element adds more depth into the video, and gives it more of a storyline rather than a simple performance based music video.

The enigma that features in my music video fits with Andrew Goodwin’s narrative theory.  He states that narratives link to the lyrics and tempo of the music. A repeated lyric in the song is ‘she’s just like you and me but she’s homeless’ and this is a strong message that you wouldn’t be able to tell this woman was homeless, as she gets up and acts the same as an ordinary person. Throughout the video, the audience wouldn’t have been able to tell the performer was homeless as she looks just like an audience person, however we soon find out that she does live on the streets and like the lyrics say, she has to beg for money. Although the visuals don’t act out the lyrics of the song, the narrative of not being able to tell this woman is homeless does link with the lyrics.  

A theory that applies to most media texts is Todorov’s theory. He believes that there are five main stages to a complete narrative. First there is an equilibrium, and there is a happy and settled scenario. Then this equilibrium is disrupted, and in the next stage people realise the disruption. Afterwards there is an attempt to repair the disruption, and in the end the original equilibrium has been restored or there is a new one.  However, my video doesn’t have these five stages. It begins with my performer dancing at a train station, then miming along to lyrics. She dances again on the chorus and mimes to the second verse. I decided to have her sing to any lyrics, as there are very few in the song. After, there is then a long instrumental section where we see her dancing, and it finishes with her begging on the streets. There is a happy equilibrium throughout; with no disruptions until the end a new equilibrium is made. We now know she is homeless, but it is still an equilibrium as she is settled and has always been like this, although this was just unknown to the audience. I chose to not follow Todorov’s theory as I wanted more of a performance based music video with lots of dancing as it is a dance song. Also, my song doesn’t have five main stages in its lyrics. There are very limited words, so a strong story couldn’t have been made from the lyrics.

Levi Strauss argued that binary opposites are important in narratives; however this doesn’t apply to my work, or many music videos. I only have one performer in my music video, so there is no opposite of her, whether it would be a man, or someone evil. I don’t believe that my music video needs another person as the song is about one person rather than a group. Other music videos that I have researched neither have binary opposites. Music videos by the boy band One Direction, artists such as Rihanna or Justin Bieber, or the Spice Girl video that inspired part of my work, all have produced videos that do not include a binary opposite. These aren’t compulsory and a narrative can work without them.  

Two theories that do apply to my music video are Andrew Goodwin’s and the restricted narration theory. These two fit my work best as my video is a performance based music video rather than a narrative based music video, so I don’t have a clear story throughout. However, this was the best approach as the song fits the dance genre, so it has a dance filled music video to match.