The Added Value of Narrative in Modern Music Videos

Violette Simard

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022

The aesthetics of music videos have come a long way since their beginnings in the 1980s with the MTV era. From maximalist to minimalist, self-reflexive to anti-videos, the MTV era set the pace and made it possible for the music videos of today to ebb and flow between the many different aesthetical trends that have been set throughout the years, and even create new ones with technological advances. One aspect that is worth looking into more specifically is the way the inclusion of narrative has changed, which Vernallis points out (p.219). Looking at SZA’s newest music video for her song Shirt helps put Vernallis’ argument into perspective.

SZA’s video for Shirt is good example of the subtlety and transparency of narrative in modern music videos (Vernallis, p.219). The points Vernallis makes about Lady Gaga’s and Beyoncé’s video for Telephone could also be made for SZA’s video for Shirt (p.219). Both videos give off the same mood as feature films, giving the audience the impression that the scenes in the video are actually a part of the narrative of a movie (Vernallis, p.219). Looking at Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, we can see how the trend of treating a music video like a mini-feature film influences the stylistic/aesthetic choices of the music video, the viewing experience, and the overall look of the end product.

One way this is done is through the inclusion of intertextuality in modern music videos adds to the narrative and aesthetic value, giving the music video a certain look (with the costume and set), while also adding some storytelling elements through the added cinematic references. For example, this Variety article gives the details of the hidden references in the video for Shirt which includes “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) and “Natural Born Killers” (1994). This helps drive the narrative and convey the sentiment of the lyrics and the theme of the song (which in SZA’s case is betrayal and heartbreak), while contributing to the general aesthetic.

Overall, looking at Vernallis’ argument about the changes in music videos in this post-cinematic moment helps explain the way artists nowadays include narrative and engage with it in order to deliver their artistic vision.

Bibliography

Vernallis, Carol. “Music Video’s Second Aesthetic?”. Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema, Oxford Academic, 2013, pp.207-233.