Narrative Analysis of Chosen Genre

By Beth Francis

The Fray –You Found Me

• The lead singer of the band, is portrayed as the hero in the narrative and performance based parts of the video. We recognize this through the large amounts of screen time he has, along with the regular close ups, he is one of the main points of attention.

• Also there are binary oppositions within this video in the sense of love and loss. The loss is portrayed through the death of the young girl, with love being portrayed through the people who have witnessed this tragedy and therefor comforting each other. This links in with one of Goodwins point of the visuals linking with the lyrics as the lyrics talk about loss – shown in the video.

• The enigma code is also apparent in this video, because we as the audience are unsure of what is happening to the casualty and the story behind it –we are intrigued to find out.

The Fratellis -Henrietta

• The lead singer of the band is once again portrayed as the hero as he is given the largest amount of screen time.

• We also have a princess in this video, with a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ theme to the video, as she is looking out from a window, down on her ‘prince’.

• These two points link in with Goodwin’s theory of the lyrics and visuals matching, as the song is about a mans feelings for this woman, which is shown through the video.

• The villain in this video, is portrayed to be the husband of the lady he has a crush on, as he is getting in the way of the hero’s quest.

• Barthes cultural code is present in this video as we instantly assume that this man wants to be with this woman, not only through the lyrics, but through his actions of standing outside her house singing – a link to Romeo and Juliet again.

The Killers –When You Were Young

• Propps theory is supported in this video as the male actor is seen as the hero in this video as he predominantly has more screen time and is shown to be rescuing the princess.

• The setting at the start of the video is quite fairytale-esque which also portrays a prince and princess theme.

• Binary oppositions of love and hate are represented in this video, as the princess is in love with a man, but then hates him for being with another woman.

• Bathes enigma code is present here as the audience is intrigued by what is going to happen with the couple next.

• The cultural code is also present, as we understand the storyline through the connotation of emotions such as sadness, which is a shared knowledge of people throughout the world.