Narrative structure within music videos

The video ‘Rabbit in your headlights’ by Unkle follows Tzetvan Todorov equilibrium theory on narrative structure and accepts the narrative expectations. The start of the equilibrium is the man walking down the road in the night. There is no clear reason why he is walking down the road which creates an enigma which the audience are keen to see answered. The disequilibrium is the when the man starts to get hit by cars. This is when the narrative changes. It disorientates the audience because even though the man has been hit by several cars he is still all in tact and alive. The new equilibrium is when the man takes his jacket off and smashes a car that hits him rather than it smashing him. This creates an action because once the jacket is taken off it drives the events along and everything changes.

                                                                                             

The video ‘Grapevine fires’ by Death cab for cutie also follows this theory on narrative structure. There is the narrative expectation of equilibrium – disequilibrium – new equilibrium. The narrative is told in a non linear way from the protagonist’s point of view. Throughout the video there are flashbacks which tell the story of the family that are in the fire and trying to escape. The use of pictures to tell the story allows the audience to make a connection with the people in the music video and to create a sense of sympathy towards them for losing everything they have.

The video ‘Stan’ by Eminem is told from two character’s point of view, the man and the woman. Along with the narrative structure there is also use of flashbacks which help tell the story and link with the lyrics of the song. This makes the audience sympathise with the man in the video. The music video has the narrative structure of Tzetvan Todorov’s theory. There is a clear structure of equilibrium – disequilibrium – new equilibrium which helps tell the story of the video. The car accident at the end of the video creates a sense of sympathy for the pregnant woman because she is now on her own and it alienates the man in the video from everyone else because of his obsession with ‘Eminem’.