TH Comparison of Two Music Videos

How do Music Videos Contribute to an Artist’s Meta-narrative?

For this task I decided to compare and contrast Fun.’s ‘We Are Young’ with Passenger’s ‘Scare Away The Dark’. The former of these songs falls under the pop/alternative genre of music, whereas the latter is more of a folk song. Their music videos are very different in how they portray the artist and construct their respective meta-narrative.

Fun. set their music video for their song in an interior location of a nightclub as well as an indoors stage for the performance element of the video. The video takes on the role of a concept/performance music video in Goodwin’s perspective. The concept part of the video portrays a sequence of events that unfold whereby everyone in the club becomes aggressive and it turns into a free-for-all. The fact that it is all shot in slow motion almost makes the audience feel like they are in a dream watching the scenes. It is a rather There are not many close-ups of the band and so there is not a lot of voyeurism present. Having said this though, the camera does return to a medium-long shot of the band on stage (also in slow motion) performing the song, so they are promoted throughout the video. There are often subtle references to the video in the song’s lyrics and style, but the song could have been represented in a much more uplifting video. For this reason, I believe that when applying Goodwin’s theory, the video is disjunctive of the song and artist.

Barthes’ cultural code can be used to explain the content of the video. We are presented with conflict in an affluent location of a nightclub. Ideas surrounding the video can stem from alcohol and binge drinking; a cause of conflict.

The music video is amplified of the song. There are references in the lyrics to the narrative in the video. As a concept/performance based video, it allows the audience to make its own assumptions and ideas surrounding it. I believe that it creates a star image of the artist that involves youth. I believe that the band’s target audience for their songs is youth and this video reflects this.


The music video for ‘Scare Away The Dark’ very clearly conforms to Pam Cook’s theory of linearity of narrative. As a rough description of the sequence of events, the video opens with a tracking shot showing an office with a grey colourisation to appear bleak. Following this are introductions of nature creeping into the office until the office setting becomes an outside forest location and all of the previously depressed characters appear free and happy. This storyline conforms to Cook’s concept that all plots follow a linear story and end with resolution and happiness. It also conforms to Todorov’s theory of the equilibrium consistent in music videos. The office and capitalism is the obstacle for the characters, who overcome this and get what they were striving for; freedom.

Bordwell and Thompson’s theory of story and plot is reinforced in this music video. They identify a difference between story (the fabula) and the plot (the synzhet), and the difference is evident in Passenger’s video. The story – being the sequence of events – in the video is the progression from the characters being depressed in an office to the characters being ecstatic outside. The plot follows the change in mood from the beginning through the change in situation Passenger’s music influences to the end where it is the complete opposite.

One can apply Barthes’ theory of narrative codes to the video, in my opinion. When considering his enigma and cultural codes in particular, elements of this video conform to his concepts. The enigma code represents the theory that ideas seen in the video spark other ideas about what we are seeing. This is evident when we see the office with the characters at the beginning of the video; we expect to see this mood be lifted as the video progresses because of the song genre and style, as well as the meta-narrative of the artist. The cultural codes too have an influence, because from a western society, this office scenario is very familiar to many and the resolution of breaking free is a dream held by many. Therefore, it is clear that Passenger’s meta-narrative is represented in this music video – he is an inspirational character whose songs can bring about change for the better. In relation to Dyer’s theories of music ‘stars’, a very positive star image of Passenger is constructed.