Narrative Theories in music videos

Todorov- he proposes that all texts have a narrative structure. He states there are 5 stages to each narrative structure and he analyses old Russian folk tales in order to demonstrate his theory.
He argues we have the following:

• Equilibrium-normality at the beginning
• Disruption- an event occurs to disrupt the normality.
• Acknowledgement- when the main protagonist understands that he/she needs to act in order to restore normality/equilibrium.
• Attempt to restore- is the act of fighting/rectifying the problem in order to solve the issue.
• New equilibrium- Is the restoration of normality, however due to the act/journey taken by the protagonist this is a new normal as the old version of normality no longer exists.

The narrative structures don't have to come in a specific order and can often start at the point of disruption or acknowledgement and then work in a non-linear fashion towards the new equilibrium.


Vladimir Propp- Russian folklorist in the early 20th century. He said that there are only ever 7 different character types that exist in literature:

• Hero
• Donor
• Helper
• Villain
• Princess
• False Hero
• Dispatcher

He added that it's not a necessity for all 7 character types to appear in the plot, but after analysing a range of different folk tales and literature observed that these 7 characters types were the mainstays of all fiction and therefore media texts.




Hero- Enrique Inglesias:
Starts at the point of disruption because someone's been robbed and the princess and the hero have run off together. Acknowledgement occurs when Enrique realises he needs to fight the villain to win the princess. He cannot escape the villain and restore equilibrium without fighting him first, to win her and the money. They attempt to restore when they plan to meet up in the desert and fight the villain. The winner takes the money however, they aren't aware that the princess called for the police but they don't make it in time and the hero dies, therefore subverting stereotypes. New equilibrium is where the villain is arrested, the hero dies and the princess rides off in the sunset with a bag of money.


Band of Horses- Dilly:


Equilibrium- riding on the bikes, with people having casual drinks at the pub.
Disruption- The bikers go into the pub at the wrong time and realise they are not liked.
Acknowledgement- The bikers start shooting the people in the pub and the person in the pub calls the police for them to come and the Bikers get out of the pub.
Attempt to restore- Police and Bikers are in an empty road fighting.
New equilibrium- The bikers ride off in the sunset after they kill the police and they are now murderers and won't ever go back to that place.