Narrative is the way that the certain events are put together,

they will be shown to an audience. Narrative can be shown

through a story that has a beginning, middle and the end. An
example where Narrative can be used is Music Videos, some
music videos may tell a story which has shown a clear
beginning, middle and end.

There are 3 different Narrative Theories which are created by

Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan Todorov and Claude Levi-Strauss. They
have different views on Narrative and they each show their own
opinion on how they are structured.

Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and
productions, which indicates that there were 7 character types in the 100 tales he
analysed, which could be applied to other media, these were:

The villain (struggles against the hero)

The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil)
The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
The hero ( victim/seeker/paladin/winner, reacts to the donor, weds the princess)

Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed that

they all went through 5 stages, these 5 stages are:

A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be)

A disruption of that order by an event.
A recognition that the disorder has occurred.
An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.
A return or restoration of a new equilibrium

Claude Levi-Strauss is a theorist who came

up with the idea that films contains binary
opposites, these binary opposites were as follows
Good vs Evil
Dark vs Light
Strong vs Weak
Past vs Future
Feminine vs Masculine
Boy vs Girl
Young vs Old
Man vs Woman.

Music Video: Enrique Iglesias - Hero

The Hero Will attempt to try to

save the princess from the villain.
In this Music Video he tries to save
the princess from the gang which
are after both of them.

The Princess Will get saved by the

hero from the villain, the hero and
the princess are in a relationship.

The Villain These are the gang and

they are after the hero and the
princess.

Overview: In this music video the hero and princess start out safe and at their home, as
they are in a relationship they show this throughout the first part of the music video.
After they realise that the villain are after them and the hero stands in front of the
princess and protects her from them as they have guns. He tries to fight them off to
save himself and the princess, however within this process the hero gets shot by the
villain and therefore dies trying to save the princess life.

Music Video: J. Cole - Crooked Smile ft. TLC

At the start of the Music Video everything is

normal and he is happy, preparing his daughters
birthday cake for later. Everything is how it should
be and therefore this is the state of equilibrium.
Nothing dramatic is going on so far.
However there becomes a disequilibrium when
the main actor J Cole gets arrested and the police
decide to raid his house, in the process of doing
this they accidentally shot his daughter. This
dramatically changes the equilibrium and
therefore no one is happy anymore.
Towards the end of this video, the state of
equilibrium has been restored as now she is in
heaven, playing with her friends. She looks
happy and we can notice she is all wearing
white. Furthermore she is drawing a picture for
her dad and this restores the equilibrium

As soon as the music video starts

there is a clear close up shot of the
man and woman, this shows the
binary opposite of Man vs Woman.
Also here there is the binary opposite
of the light background with them
standing out in front being a dark
colour. This therefore shows Light vs
Dark.

Further on in this music video, the lyrics If I were a boy shows her doing the mans role and she is going to work, as
his job which is a Police Officer. She does the day to day duties that he would be doing and therefore will also show
Woman vs Man. Adding to this the whole video is in black and white which could show the opposite which can be
compared to them being opposite.