Narrative Music Videos

A narrative music video is a video that features a visual story that is easy to follow. Unlike a performance video, a pure narrative video will feature no lip-synced singing.


Some examples of narrative music videos are:

• You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift
• Mine - Taylor Swift
• I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift

You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift

Mine - Taylor Swift

I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift 

As I previously mentioned, the filming and editing of a narrative music video tells the story featured or suggested in the lyrics. This narrative may surprise the audience by giving a different interpretation than the one suggested by the song lyrics.

The construction of the narrative may involve the performer themselves or a character they have created. (Like seen in the You Belong With Me music video.) Sometimes the artist doesn't feature at all and there are just actors. 

Elastic Heart - Sia

The creation of the narrative is like a mini film. The production value may be fairly high and there is a clear linear structure and/or unrelated events. 

Also, a narrative may contain enigmas to maintain the audiences attention. An enigma code means the producer releases bits of information to increase the tension of a media text. Narrative strands are set up at the beginning and means that there is a 'restricted' narrative. 

Different narrative techniques

There are evident differences between some narrative music videos. For example, there is a large comparison between the Hero - Enrique Iglesias music video and the Waiting All Night - Rudimental music video.

The difference between these two music videos is that in Hero the actors in it include the artist himself. However, in the Rudimental music video Waiting All Night the people featured in it aren't the band. Another difference between the two is in the Hero music video, the plot of the video follows the song. And in the Waiting All Night the plot doesn't relate to the song but it fits fairly well with what happens. 

We are attracted to the Hero music video because it involves a hot guy and girl, it also involves money and a bad ending. We want to fully watch the music video to find out what happens to the couple and to see if they work out. With the Waiting All Night music video we almost immediately get thrown into the story as the guy gets hit by a car fairly early into the music video, we then feel we want to watch the rest of the video to find out if the guy is able to ride again with his amputated leg.