Narrative in music video:

• Much of the research on music videos makes only small references, if any to the music.
• Kaplan especially, applies extensive Hollywood film theory to music videos. She uses two videos clips for comparison: 

• Marilyn Monroe- Diamonds are a girl's best friend. Click here to view 

• Madonna- Material girl. (1985) Click here to view 

 There are obvious links to music, videos and films. An example of this is that music is often used to promote films.
Here is the evidence:
Guns 'n' Roses- You could be mine (from Terminator 2, 1992) Click here to view trailer of Terminator 2

Andrew Goodwin:

"Songs are not the movies"

He argues that by incorporating lip-synchronization into the video, the performer is addressing the viewer directly, as opposed to the distance between actor and audience in a movie, brought about by ignoring the camera in an attempt to act "more natural".

This brings a voyeuristic quality to watching movies that doesn't manifest itself in music video, where lip-syncing sees to embrace the viewer, bringing him/her into the action.

Other writers, like Kaplan also believe that music is not the primary factor of a music video. They believe the reason for this is the advertising industry and promotion techniques. Albums, singles and tours are advertised in magazines, billboards, on buses etc

We shall use some of these advertising techniques to get our music video noticed. An idea is to put it on a website as it can be seen worldwide and people can leave their comments as to what they think of it.

Berland, from Sound and Vision:

"Image is more important than sound"

Phillip Tagg (1983):


"Listeners of pop music already visualise the music they hear using a series of semantic connections they hear created by the text"


Will Straw:


Sees the promo-clip as a threat to the listeners individuality, and seems to take away the responsibility of visualising the music "diminishing the interpretive liberty of the individual music listener who, when presented with a promo clip, sees to have visual or narrative interpretations of song lyrics imposed on him or her"