Narrative analysis

Music video analysis

The music video featuring Miley Cyrus ‘23’ applies to Levi-Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions. The video has many of these, for example law vs crime, student’s vs teachers, good vs bad. We can clearly see this from the video as for example the students lock one of the teachers out of a room; this shows that they’re in opposition and fighting for that room. Also, they rebel against the law as they sing about drugs and use foul language throughout the video in example ‘I don’t give a fu*k’. This thus has a negative effect on the audience as it may influence the audience to be rebellious like them, or influence them to take drugs.

The video is non-linear as it does not have an actual story line but it’s just a snap-shot of people in a school. There is lots of ellipsis used, where the video cuts from one thing to another, yet we don’t see what happens in between. Moreover, repetition is used of similar scenes to engage the audience and show the flow of the non-linear narrative.

Daniel Powter’s music video to ‘Bad day’ follows Todorov’s theory as it starts off with an equilibrium where both the people wake up to another day, the disequilibrium is where they’re both lonely and in the recognition they both realise they need someone else and they see each other, in the reparation they draw on the same bill board and finally, in the new equilibrium, they find each other and get together, both being happy.

The video follows a convergent narrative because we have a split screen on both of them and we see both of their lives separately but in the end of the video they meet. There is also a use of ellipsis as for example we see them getting up and after leaving the house, yet we skip the part where they get ready.

The effect that the video has on the audience is positive as it shows that everyone has bad days which gives them hope and also that they will find ‘the one’ in their life..

Maclesmore’s new single ‘same love’ follows Todorov’s theory as the story follows a basic narrative.  In the equilibrium the gay men are happily in a relationship together, in the disequilibrium they realise that they’re serious and that they have to tell their parents about wanting to get married, however their parents disapprove and they’re both unhappy about that, but in the recognition they realise that their relationship is stronger than that and that they want to be together and will get married in-spite of what their parents think and so, in the new equilibrium they get married and they parents finally approve, leaving everyone happy.

The narrative is Linear because it tells a story of two men and the development of their relationship. There is a use of ellipsis throughout as we cut from when they are young, to when they’re teenagers, to when they’re adults and we often skip in time and miss out parts of their life.

Also, there is a use of flashbacks as in the end image we get one of the men in a hospital bed and then a flashback to when he was born, and we have the same image of their loved one, holding their hand. 

The effect that the video has on its audience is positive as it encourages to accept people’s differences and to show that all love is the same, no matter if you love men or women, the love between people is always the same.