Narrative in Music Promos

Synaesthesia
'A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a colour.'

Narrative

In stories narratives have a beginning, a middle and an ending. However, this doesn't work in as well in songs and the narrative are usually incomplete. This is referred to as a fragmentary narrative.
Fragmentary narratives may help the repeatability of the music promos.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin came up with this theory that music promos it into three different categories to see how they link to the songs. These are the three categories and examples:

Illustration - the promo basically illustrates the ideas/narrative in the song lyric.

An example of this is Within Temptation - Memories.
The narrative fits the song perfectly as it is portraying someone going through their memories which is basically what the lyrics mean.
 The editing, camerawork, narrative/performance and the mise-en-scene are pretty conventional for the genre and they help illustrate the meaning behind the song.

Ampification - uses a key idea/image from the lyrics and develops it into a concept within the promo. A link remains between the lyric and the promo.

 

An example of this is Nightwish 'Storytime'
The lyrics that the promo fits around is the part of the chorus 'I am the voice of Never-never-land,
The innocence, the dreams of every man, I am the empty crib of Peter Pan, ... I am the story that will read you real, Every memory that you hold dear'. This is shown as the costumes they are wearing are different characters ,e.g. the phantom from the Phantom of the Opera, Snow White, but with a slight twist so that they fit in with the genre of the song, e.g., Sow White is slightly gothic. The narrative is a lot of 'behind the scenes' footage of the band members doing other stuff that sort of fits with the lyrics although not as much as the performance narrative which seems to involve scaring the audience/child in the promo.


Disjuncture - the promo bears no resemblance to the lyrics or its meaning; abstract; often seen as unconventional/'arty' videos; creates a new range  of meanings for the song.

An example of this is Red Hot Chilli Peppers  'Can't Stop'.
The narrative/performance has nothing to do with the song and seems to mainly be the band making a slightly weird tribute to abstract art.
The camerawork is fairly conventional as there are long shots, mid shots and close ups which are what the majority of music promos have.
The editing is also conventional as there mainly straight cuts and some multiple images.
The mise-en-scene is helps show the disjuncture of the promo. The lighting is artificial and therefor pretty conventional. The costumes are casual clothes so that is also conventional. The location appears to be a studio/warehouse like place. The props are the abstract art tribute that makes the disjuncture very clear as some of the props are bins, lights and a wall.