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Narrative theory
- Defined as a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time.
Aristotle theory -
Aristoltle's theory states that a music video should have the following:
- Start
- Middle
- End
The most obvious music video this theory relates to is ' All I want'- Kodaline. In this video we can see that the start is that the man with a disability is often left out and is bullied. The middle is when he beats up the three men to help out the woman he is fond of. The end is then him walking the woman home, which shows that he is now treated like a normal person.
Vladmir Propp theory -
Vladmir Propp theory states that every music video should have 8 types of characters. Although, there are eight different characters, one person can fill up more than one character. The eight different types of characters are:
- The hero
- The Villain
- The donor
- The dispatcher
- The false hero
- The helper
- The princess
- The father
Amber run's video, ' I found', proves this theory showing some of the characters. The main characters we can see a clear hero, villain, princess and a helper. The man is the red coat is clearly the villain in the video with the man next to him the helper as well as the hero. We can also see the princess is clearly the woman who has been kidnapped.
Izetan Todorov-
This theory has five main points. These are:
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1. A state of equilibrium at the outset.
2. A disruption to the equilibrium by some action.
3. A recognition that there has been a disruption.
4. An attempt to repair the disruption.
5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium.
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To put it simply, we have an incident in the narrative. There is then a disruption to this the incident, which is then recognised. Once it has been recognised, then there is an attempt to fix it, resulting in a new equilibrium.
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This theory can be seen in 'High Hopes'. The state of equilibrium at the outset is the wedding and the woman leaving the man at the alter. We later see that the man was abusive to her which would be a disruption to the equilibrium. The man tries to then look after the woman, but then we see a plot twist when they are both shot by the abusive man. Then we see a reinstatement of the equilibrium in hospital.
Levi Strauss theory-
This theory is based on oppositions or conflicts. This could be based on a relationship, with one partner being abusive and the other being really nice. This can also be described as binary opposite.
We can see this in Shawn Mendes' 'Treat you better' when a woman is in love with an abusive man ,but is also affectionate towards a really nice person. The really nice person can't understand why she keeps choosing the abusive man. This shows the Levi Strauss theory because we have an opposite of the two males.
Music videos-
There are three main types of music videos: narrative, performance and conceptional. A narrative music video shows a story throughout the song. This sometimes links to the lyrics. An example of this would be James TW - ' When you love someone'.
A performance video is all about seeing the band perform the song. An example would be Monsters and men - 'Mountain sound'.
The final type of video is a conceptional video. This video comes from an idea, however this idea is normally very random. An obvious example would be Lady Gaga - 'Telephone'.
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