Narrative and performance based music videos

Some of you have lost the sheet so here's the artists I want you to research again:

Narrative Based

 

Often there are stories to accompany music videos. These can either link to the song or contrast to the song (either buying into audience expectations or subverting them).

Think of Don’t Mug Yourself by The Streets OR Step into my World by Kylie.

 

Don’t Mug Yourself has a simple narrative told through different snapshots of the young boy’s relationship breakdown. This narrative conforms to the lyrics of the song and buys into audience expectation of both the artist and the ‘idea’ of the song. Other examples are Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Weezer’s Buddy Holly.

 

Step into my World has a more complex surreal narrative. This narrative shows Kylie walking through ‘a day in the life of’, but every time she start the day again elements are repeated with different consequences. The song does conform to some of the lyrics i.e. the idea of stepping into Kylie’s surreal world, but it subverts the idea creatively looking at repetition and consequence. Other examples are The Chemical Brother’s The Boxer (this follows a boy trying to get his ball back) and Robbie William’s Rock DJ (where the models are not satisfied until the literally get a piece of Robbie!).

 

Performance Based

 

This is literally a performance of an artist to their music. It does not mean that they have to be playing their instruments or singing to camera. It does not even have to be the artist singing.

Here are some examples of creative performance based music videos:

Daft Punk’s Around the World the performance here is by dancers dressed as skeletons, spacemen, jocks and many more doing a repetitive routine that is addictive to watch.

Notorious BIG Sky’s The Limit the performance here is by children performing as Biggie, Puff Daddy and their many, many women. Interesting to watch the confident performances.

White Stripe’s Hardest Button To Button the performance here is by Jack and Meg White. But the director digitally repeats their performance to move them through some interesting urban scenes.