MY 3 NARRATIVE OVERVIEWS:

Castle On The Hill – Pop Genre

“Castle On The Hill” is a more recent pop music video released by Ed Sheeran in 2017, this video was one of the most popular in its album, representing teenage life and reminiscing on the carefree moments of childhood- appealing directly to his young target audience.

Narrative content/type: The lyrics of this song are definitely amplified by the music video narrative that directly correlates, leading us to pay more attention to the detail in the lyrics. The narrative of this music video is illustrative. Instead of us having to imagine Ed Sheeran as a young teenager having fun with his friends, it is directly demonstrated for us.

Structure: This music video is made up of many different flashbacks and memories Ed Sheeran has regarding teen years which makes the structure episodic; we see many different settings, scenarios and costuming changes throughout. Also the music video cuts randomly between different versions of the past and to the present in performance sections with Ed Sheeran singing, meaning this video is also anachronic.

Overview of story: The story of this song surrounds teenagers growing up, finding their friends and going through natural, big life changes whether they’re good or bad. The narrative of this music video features a friend group (with a main boy playing young Ed Sheeran) and it follows them as they go to parties, hang out and experience things for the first time e.g. “had my first kiss on friday night”. The narrative correlates to the lyrics of this song perfectly.

Ending: The end of this video displays Ed Sheeran sitting around a fire with his friend group he grew up with however they are all grown up, in the present day. We can see each of them and which actors played their young selves in the music video. When we see Ed Sheeran reconnecting, appreciating and spending time with old friends, despite them all changing and progressing through life on different paths, we as the audience can see Sheeran is portrayed as humble and grateful for the childhood that got him to where he is today. The lyrics “these people raised me, and I can’t wait to go home” reiterate this point and make the narrative through the music video more real.

Lose Yourself – Rap Genre

In 2015 Eminem released a music video for his biggest ever rap song- “Lose Yourself”. This powerful music video also has over 1 billion streams on youtube and drastically boosted the rapper’s career by becoming Eminem’s first number 1 single in the Billboard charts; staying in the number 1 spot for twelve consecutive weeks.

Narrative content/type: The narrative of this music video is somewhat illustrative because the music video illustrates Eminem’s life and what he is rapping about in small snippets put into a montage when editing. The lyrics are amplified in this video because at points in the rap battles seen as narrative, he is actually rapping the song “Lose Yourself” meaning it’s performance too.

Structure: This music video is episodic; it directly reflects the lyrics at points and follows the story being told. The events occur in chronological order making the video linear because we see growth throughout the video.

Overview of story: This story follows a young, self-made rapper trying to make something of himself, it’s implied he comes from a low income family that resulted in unhealthy surroundings to grow up around. We see snippets of his mum who seems to struggle with addiction issues as well as gang references and a dingy, dark setting of the town he lives in and wants to escape from. He rap battles to grow his musical career through performing every night and putting his name out there. A family of his own is referenced and the lyrics “He goes home and barely knows his own daughter” tell us that he feels he is failing in most parts of life and rapping is the only thing that gets him through, it’s the only thing he believes can be a success for him.  The stages he is seen on through the music video begin to get bigger to reflect his slowly growing fame and the music video finishes with him leaving for a more positive life.

Ending: The music video ends with a wide shot of Eminem walking off into the night with a black bin-sack which I presume holds all of his belongings. Some may view this as a negative but I believe this is meant to be perceived as him finally moving onto a better life and leaving the traumatic past he grew up with behind. The lyrics, “Mom, I love you, but this trailer’s got to go, I cannot grow old in Salem’s lot” proves he finally became fed up with the unfulfilled, poor life he was forced to live growing up. So, the ending correlates to this and highlights his realisation that his musical talent can take him somewhere better and get him noticed with bigger labels, his final walk off communicates his gamble for a better life.

Falling Asleep At The Wheel – Alternative/Indie Genre

Holly Humberstone is an alternative/indie artist who surfaced in 2020 with this song (“Falling Asleep At The Wheel”) being her second released song. She grew extremely quickly, having already performed at the The Brits as well as currently supporting a huge, globally known artist – Olivia Rodrigo – on her world tour.

Narrative content/type: This music video seems to be disjunctive at the beginning however it ends up actually being illustrative when you watch the entire video. The whole video was done in one take and it starts with Holly Humberstone lying on the floor and she ends up moving with the camera doing a tracking shot and following her. This is actually relating to her going back in time and she ends up in a car (relating to the song meaning) so the music video is cleverly done to be illustrative in a subtle way.

Structure: The structure of this music video is cyclical, Holly starts and ends in the same car, same place. Also the video is thematic; it follows a set mood, setting and mise en scene throughout that match the theme/feeling of the song without directly illustrating the narrative.

Overview of story: The name of the song “Falling Asleep At The Wheel” is a metaphor for the deeper meaning of the song. The song is about losing momentum in life and feeling like your emotions are becoming too much, resulting in you destroying the relationship you’re in as well as yourself; the song references feeling as if you are responsible for others and their safety or wellbeing. This directly relates to the analogy of being in a car: when driving a car you are personally responsible for the safety of all the passengers in it. “Falling Asleep At The Wheel” is a way of explaining you’re finally giving up and you’ve become too overwhelmed, this could result in a car crash and that’s the metaphor for the real life crash of arguments, emotion and wellbeing. The story in the music video starts with Holly getting into the car but cuts to her on the ground, she lays still lip syncing but begins slowly moving backwards (in time) and finishing up in the car. The music video is cyclical and I believe the beginning is her on a stretcher after falling asleep at the wheel, getting in a crash and not surviving. The lyrics “Wake me up” are repeated throughout which relate to two things: for the narrative she is now unconscious or dead and wants to be alive again, and in real life she wants to be woken up from the continuous sadness and lack of energy in life.

Ending: The ending of Holly in the car and the video fading off into darkness reflects her feeling unable to escape the continuous cycle of uncertainty in life (hence the cyclical structure) and not being able to become happier in her relationship. The two people in the relationship are dragging each other down, becoming toxic and the fade into darkness put in during editing stages reflects the hole that is hard to escape from.

3 OF MY OWN, ORIGINAL NARRATIVES:

• Reminiscing- A widowed old man is seen carrying out daily tasks alone in his home. He heats up his dinner and takes it to the armchair in front of his TV, he picks up a videotape named “Summer 1950” and inserts it to the tape player in his vintage TV. He watches a sequence of flashbacks to teenage years of him and his late wife first falling in love over the summer months, laughing, dancing and spending time together. The video finishes with a zoom out, fade to black shot of him in his arm chair whilst a single tear rolls down his cheek.
• Escape- A young teenager is seen in an unhealthy, low-income household, they are pushing through life and can be seen growing up as the music video progresses. They pursue their ambitions of being a professional sportsman and train everyday, it’s the only thing that keeps them going. As the music video ends they can be seen leaving their town in a car to the airport, onto a better life.
• Desire- A girl (Girl 1) is seen to be glancing over at a heterosexual couple longingly, she likes the girl (Girl 2) in this couple but is too scared to speak to her. They end up bumping into each other in a park and Girl 1 believes it is fate. They start getting to know each other as friends initially because girl 2 still has a boyfriend. Girl 2 finally realises she has feelings for Girl 1 and breaks up with her boyfriend. They end up together by the end of the music video.