Different Types Of Narrative

There are three types of narratives;

Illustration

Amplification

Disjuncture  

Illustration is the simplest and easiest concept to base a music video around as it is literally a meaning to the song’s lyrics in visual form. Owl City have used illustrative ideas in their videos in the past, for example in ‘Fireflies’ the guy is singing and as he says ‘fireflies’ the word fireflies is displayedon the screen.

Disjuncture is the idea of basically completely ignoring the song’s meaning or concept and instead, create a whole new set of meanings or images that can be put to the song, for example 'Can’t stop' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. To keep up this idea of disjuncture we will have to; maintain our loose narrative, ignore the songs original lyrics or theoretical meanings, create our own meanings or ideas, e.g. our narrative, use and create new conventions so as to challenge the normal conventions of electro / pop music as Owl City in the music video.

   

Amplification is closely related to disjuncture, but amplification is just the enhancement of a concept while still keeping a link to it, this technique works brilliantly in marketing and advertising the band. However, it will not work for us as our concept for the video bears no resemblance at all to the song, so it would not work as amplification does.  

Some shots in the Owl City song Fireflies use disjuncture so this shows us that is works well with this genre of music and that it can be very effective in creating a visual experience.

Most Popular Rock Music Videos

The two music videos below are both very famous music videos that display the conventions of rock, Sweet Child O' Mine is the third single by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and the third from their 1987 debut studio album (Appetite for Destruction). Released on August 17, 1988, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the band's first and only number-one single in the U.S. It reached number six on the UK Singles Chart, when re-released in 1989. Are You Gonna Be My Girl is a song by the Australian rock band Jet, featured on their 2003 album Get Born. It was the first single from the album, released in 2003 in Australia and the UK, and in 2004 in the United States. The song is often cited for similarities to Iggy Pop's 'Lust for Life'.

Guns and Roses- Sweet Child o' Mine



Jet- Are you gonna be my girl

Modestep

Modestep use a wide selection of unique shots that look perfect for the genre of music we are planning to do. Modestep focus mostly on low angled shots lokoing up at the band with lots of light flashing/moving behind them. This makes the band members stand out more as they are drawn to the centre of the shot. Also Modesteps appearnce is what we aim to display our artists as, as they wear mostly black and white clothing with graphics on the front of the tee shirts. Also tattoos and a variety of haircuts making each of the artists look unique. Modestep as based mostly of performance which is another feature we want to include in our music video as we ar filming inside a studio.

Firth's Theories

Firth said that music vides can be characterised by 3 broad typologies. The first one was "Performance" which was all about how the artists tried to portray the sense of being at one of there concerts. The second category was "Narrative" which very linear stories , with love stories being the most popular, being displayed in the music video. Finally, the last of the three is "Conceptual". This involves metaphors to create a mood and have multiple meanings. The conceptual stage of Firth's theory can be seen in the music video "Around the world" by "Daft Punk". The whole point of a conceptual music video is to have multiple meanings rather than a straight narrative. You can take many different meanings you see from 'around the world', but the main point is that this video never follows a narrative or shows the performance of the artists.

Todorov's Narative Theory

Todorov's narrative theory consists of 5 stages. They are:   

Equilibrium: everything is normal

Disruption of equilibrium: something upsets the normal balance of life

Recognition of disruption: something effects the hero

Attempt to repair the disruption: the hero goes on his quest

Equilibrium is restored: the hero defeats the villain 

Secret Sin Lyrics

Verse 1

Let’s not make an announcement
Can we make this thing brief?
Let’s take things just a step at a time
and see where it might lead
I’ll run and close all the curtains
Ensure no light’s let in
Hide away from the spies of the day
And live our secret sin

(Instrumental)

Verse 2

I’ll stop the clocks from ticking
Freeze the earth in its’ place
Chase away the night from the day
So I can longer see your face
We’ll watch each others every move
Bathe in every breathe
I’ll fall asleep to the sound of your voice
In love we will remain

(Instrumental)

Chorus

I’ll fight your corner when you’ve been beaten
Take all the weight when life gets to heavy
Do whatever it takes just to make you smile
I won’t let life defeat you
And sometimes the road is rough
Just remember one thing on those cloudy nights
You will always have my love

(Instrumental)

Verse 3

Love has refracted a tear in my eye
and now the world around me is gold
Thoughts of you have taken over my mind
I think of how we could grow old
we’d live off our laughter and smiles
Build a life within a wall of happiness
and never once see a cloud

(Instrumental Solo)

Chorus x2

Artists Permission

In order to be able to use our chosen song, we first needed to gain permission from Modestep themselves as the track was copyrighted. As previously mentioned I have two members of the band on Facebook, I approached Matt the bands drummer and explained to him the situation and what we wanted to do with the track. He came back to me within 24 hours which was extremely pleasing, he explained that as long as we state that the song belongs to Modestep and that we're not re-releaing the track under the sale of any other names then we have permission.  

However It was slightly disheartening but also understandable that the band would not be able to perform for us.

Nevertheless, by contacting the band on Facebook we were able to obtain the relevant permission needed. This proved to be an extremely useful means of communication.