Analysing Pop Genre Music Videos: Narrative

Now that we've chosen on a song to perform, 'Cops and Robbers' we can now begin to consider the narrative of our story.


It's important to be aware of the typical conventions of the certain genres we hope to work in as thinking about the audience who will want to watch it is one of the most important things producers of actual music videos need to think about.

Looking at most Pop music videos they all do follow a strict linear narrative which has a beginning, middle and end. It may cut quickly from shot to shot (to keep the excitement and momentum of a pop song) and may even cut between scenes like in Taylor Swift's 'Blank Space' where we can easily see the beginning of the story of her meeting the boy, the middle, in which they live with an enjoyable relationship; and the end where they go through a harsh break up.

As seen in the video there is another type of narrative that is very popular in Pop music videos- a Non-Linear narrative. This is typically set in one or two scenes that are not taking place during the events of the regular storyline and shows the artists performing as they reflect on the events of the song. With ‘Blank Space’ Taylor looks back on her troubles and strife. Typically the non-linear scenes take place during the chorus but this rule isn’t law.

Another good example of non-linear narratives is Shawn Mendes’ ‘Mercy’ where the linear narrative is him in the car about to drown and the non-linear is his performance in the music room.

So for our music video we need a strong, easy to follow, relatable and immediately recognisable plotline as pop music videos only have a very short running time to get the idea of a story across- so audience's expect a clear and quick to follow plot.
Applying this to our music video we should try and think of an easy to follow narrative with at least one non-linear scene that's removed from the main story.