Storytelling in music videos

[Bramblethorn]

Music video is an interesting medium for storytelling. Sometimes a video is just film of the band performing the song, but sometimes they get a lot more creative.

Then the challenge is to tell a complete story in about five minutes, usually without dialogue, while matching pacing and content to a song that (usually) can't be changed to fit with the video.

Yesterday I saw the new video for Till Death Us Do Part. I'm a sucker for anything with Chris Harms in it, but this one in particular is a nice little piece of storytelling that doesn't end up where I expected it to go. (For those who like me are a little face-blind, it may be helpful to know that there are two similar-looking guys with glasses and ponytails; one is playing the priest, the other is the best man.)

My first reaction was "I'd love to read that story", but then, I'm not sure it would work so well as text. Video makes it easy to suggest how somebody's feeling without showing why they're feeling that way; it's not impossible to achieve that in text but it's hard, especially if you don't want the reader to know what you're doing.

On the other hand, some of the techniques do translate. It uses some familiar tropes to set up expectations, and that's something we certainly can do in text.

...so, anybody have other examples of storytelling in music videos? Thoughts on what tricks do and don't translate well from video to text?

 

[lustatopia]

Wow. That was one crazy video, dude. Great production values, cool song.

So that's what became of the Deathmetal I listened to as a kid. It's toned down and spruced up with a lot of production to make the charts and then to really bust out of the genre's stereotype, toss in a gay kiss at the end. Whoa, Dude!

The thing is that it is overproduced. It's corporate. Like a Michael Jackson video of the 1990's. It's owned by big business, the suits were in charge. I like my music videos to be clever and sharp, but feel real, like the musicians were in charge. This is like MTV on steroids. The gay kiss ending seems more like it was focus-group tested as a politico-commercial statement than a heartfelt erotic twist.

They shoulda hired me to direct, not some fuckwit Eurovision cocksucker. I would have scuffed it up a bit to look more authentically raw, let the music's art intrude more. Plus, save money. This should have more raw edges. It's too airbrushed and seamless.

The problem that all music videos with story line plots have to overcome is the same as a film that has a great sound track, only reversed. If a film relies too much on the soundtrack to make up for, say, weak dialog or plot, then that's a flaw. Likewise, a music video is about the music first, if the film production and story line are too over the top, then the music and the musicians are playing second fiddle.

That's what happened in this video. The motive isn't about these guys as musical artists. Perhaps the musician's agent wants to market Harms as an actor and is fishing for a major film role for him. See he can act! Who knew? Whatever, this is a video designed to test the guy's star potential and that has everything to do with accountants and nothing to do with art.

 

[lustatopia]

Here's an example of a more subtle way to tell a story with a music video.

Notice that the musicians tell the bloody story and the story is non-linear, dream-like, personal. It's still artsy as fuck and the director and his mates had a great time showing off, yet it stays focused on the musicians and their art. It even has a similar gender-swirling device as Harm's video, only not sensationalized.

Granted there are a million ways to concept out this shit and this is just one of 'em, but it's more honest and helluva a lot cheaper then hiring Universal Pictures to make your music video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KNsBCf34fQ

 

[ElectricBlue]

Here's an example of a more subtle way to tell a story with a music video.

Courtney Barnett is another superb example of why you ignore Oz music at your peril. She's one of the best local song-writers around right now, a great quirky voice, and a very good story teller. She's captured something of the Australian urban scene in an unmistakable way. I wouldn't rush out to see her live, but I've got a couple of albums, and always turn her up when she comes on the car radio.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Wow. That was one crazy video, dude. Great production values, cool song.

So that's what became of the Deathmetal I listened to as a kid. It's toned down and spruced up with a lot of production to make the charts and then to really bust out of the genre's stereotype, toss in a gay kiss at the end. Whoa, Dude!

From what I know of their background, it's not so much "death metal toned down to be marketable" as "combination of a lot of different influences", with metal being a big one but not the defining one. Harms comes from a classical background and they've done a couple of pure classical albums and a country side project, as well as a lot of pop covers. Gared, the cute keyboard player, is part of David Hasselhoff's touring band.

The thing is that it is overproduced. It's corporate. Like a Michael Jackson video of the 1990's. It's owned by big business, the suits were in charge. I like my music videos to be clever and sharp, but feel real, like the musicians were in charge. This is like MTV on steroids. The gay kiss ending seems more like it was focus-group tested as a politico-commercial statement than a heartfelt erotic twist.

I think a lot of that slickness is actually coming from the musicians themselves. If you check the credits for that video, yes you'll see a professional director, but you'll also see band members doubling up as technical crew (lighting and drone operator), and most of the cast are friends and family. From stuff I've seen elsewhere, I think Harms does a lot of the graphic design work for their albums, and I would be surprised if he hadn't been heavily involved in planning this one. Music is a competitive industry, and cross-skilled musicians who can do their own media work have an advantage over those who don't.

Re. the kiss... Harms has sung before about having sex with guys, he's appeared as a drag performer in a previous video, and done a song about his crush on Matt Bellamy, among other things. I don't know whether he's actually bi or just doesn't care who thinks he might be, but it certainly isn't something that they just affected for this video.

(It's possible that there's also a cultural thing here. My understanding is that a lot of German bands go out of their way to signal that the far-right aren't welcome at their shows, and this seems like an effective way to do that. But Blind Justice might know better than me on that.)

 

[Bramblethorn]

Here's an example of a more subtle way to tell a story with a music video.

Notice that the musicians tell the bloody story and the story is non-linear, dream-like, personal. It's still artsy as fuck and the director and his mates had a great time showing off, yet it stays focused on the musicians and their art. It even has a similar gender-swirling device as Harm's video, only not

Hmm. It's an interesting clip, but can you elaborate on the "storytelling" side of it? To me, the story is all in the song lyrics, with the video just showing the performers syncing with that recording in different locations; I don't really see how the video is adding story there, but maybe I'm missing something?

(I don't mean to say that telling a story is the only valid way to make a music video, either - just that it's the one I was talking about here.)

 

[lustatopia]

(It's possible that there's also a cultural thing here. My understanding is that a lot of German bands go out of their way to signal that the far-right aren't welcome at their shows, and this seems like an effective way to do that. But Blind Justice might know better than me on that.)

Yeah, I was thinking about that after I commented. I noticed that they flashed the Christian cross, which had to be a sign of something.

So I googled them. The Lords of the Lost were going to tour with KMFDM in 2017 but US immigration killed their visas application for reasons unknown.

I know KMFDM. My generation. Even partied back stage with them. KMFDM are the opposite of the far-right. They're seriously radical hardcore left in their politics, so not Trump's kinda folks. Anarchists. Known for putting on a helluva a show. Cult following, although back in the day, the skinheads always turned out in force for their shows. I've seen their shows turn into near riots. Great times! They wouldn't let Lord of the Lost tour with them if they weren't fellow travellers.

Actually, I'm surprised KMFDM are still around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOoiIkFQq4

 

[Bramblethorn]

I know KMFDM. My generation. Even partied back stage with them. KMFDM are the opposite of the far-right. They're seriously radical hardcore left in their politics, so not Trump's kinda folks. Anarchists. Known for putting on a helluva a show. Cult following, although back in the day, the skinheads always turned out in force for their shows. I've seen their shows turn into near riots. Great times! They wouldn't let Lord of the Lost tour with them if they weren't fellow travellers.

Definitely. They don't get very political in their songs, but between the "FCK AFD" T-shirts and 0:39 of this video, I think you're correct in that interpretation.

My musical education was weird and patchy, so I missed KMFDM's heyday, but they've always been popular in goth circles. "Juke Joint Jezebel" is a standard, and there's a place near me that's doing regular 80s/90s goth nights, so I may be dancing to them again in the near future.

 

[lustatopia]

Hmm. It's an interesting clip, but can you elaborate on the "storytelling" side of it? To me, the story is all in the song lyrics, with the video just showing the performers syncing with that recording in different locations; I don't really see how the video is adding story there, but maybe I'm missing something?

(I don't mean to say that telling a story is the only valid way to make a music video, either - just that it's the one I was talking about here.)

Hmmm. That's the thing, see. We routinely are dealing with semiotics, syntax, the grammar of thoughts that flow chronologically as we try to express our ideas clearly. But that's not how real reality is, that's just the toolkit we use to delimit reality into manageable bites. It's reductionist. If you want to capture something real you got expand your toolkit. Our souls, our dreams, our being exist far below the linguistic surface of our delimited language. We reside in images, scents, sounds, formless emotions, fears, sky, Earth, metaphors all mixed nonlinearly, kaleidoscopically blending, complex and dense, making connections, "spooky action at a distance." The world doesn't make sense like a rational story. So stop trying to make sense and you will get closer to a truth.

Easier said, than done, I know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cAxLZpelmQ

 

[Hypoxia]

The OP video didn't move me but I'm old. The 'storytelling' part looked rather vague. Maybe I'm not stoned enough. Ah, for SLEDGEHAMMER...

I try storytelling with music, not just as a singer-songwriter, but with LIT tales wrapped around lyrics. And melodic tracks often run through my mind as I write. Challenge: Write an erotic short as a music video with the sound off.

 

[Voboy]

The OP video didn't move me but I'm old. The 'storytelling' part looked rather vague. Maybe I'm not stoned enough. Ah, for SLEDGEHAMMER...

I try storytelling with music, not just as a singer-songwriter, but with LIT tales wrapped around lyrics. And melodic tracks often run through my mind as I write. Challenge: Write an erotic short as a music video with the sound off.

I prefer “my” 80s videos too, but I can also appreciate today’s “mini-movies.”

It used to be about showcasing the music, but now it’s often about showcasing the director. That’s fine; things change. But it’ll never be more fun than “You Might Think” by the Cars, and it’ll NEVER be sexier than “Cold-Hearted” by Paula Abdul.

 

[8letters]

Music video is an interesting medium for storytelling. Sometimes a video is just film of the band performing the song, but sometimes they get a lot more creative.

Then the challenge is to tell a complete story in about five minutes, usually without dialogue, while matching pacing and content to a song that (usually) can't be changed to fit with the video.

Yesterday I saw the new video for Till Death Us Do Part. I'm a sucker for anything with Chris Harms in it, but this one in particular is a nice little piece of storytelling that doesn't end up where I expected it to go. (For those who like me are a little face-blind, it may be helpful to know that there are two similar-looking guys with glasses and ponytails; one is playing the priest, the other is the best man.)

This is not storytelling. What this is a series of related images presented to us, and we're asked to create a story that ties them together. You could do the same thing by creating a deck of cards with wedding-themed images, number them so they'd be in some sort of chronological order and then deal out ten of them at random.

What most music videos do is present a series of quick images. Our mind then processes those images. "That's a church! I've been to a church like that. It's probably this type of church in that kind of neighborhood." The images themselves provide our brain visual entertainment. And our brain tries to create a story that ties the images together.

The band and director did a great job of creating compelling images. The ending wasn't truly a twist. It was an image that didn't fit any of the images that went before it. I didn't care for the song.

There aren't a lot of music videos that actually tell a story. My favorite is Semisonic's Closing Time. An extremely clever video. Ed Sheeran has a couple, Perfect and Galway Girl.

 

[WoolyWorm]

Althought I'm lukewarm on the music, I've always liked this video and have thought it could be adapted into a nice Lit story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmKAn8rNbKg

This one, too, although, as a Lit story, it probably wouldn't score that well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puu3IvKnSb4

 

[Voboy]

Billy Idol’s “Cradle of Love” video IS a Lit story. Beautifully told.

 

[jaF0]

The only ones I can mention by name are 'Hot For Teacher' and 'Cherry Pie', which are certainly Lit material.

 

[Bramblethorn]

This is not storytelling. What this is a series of related images presented to us, and we're asked to create a story that ties them together. You could do the same thing by creating a deck of cards with wedding-themed images, number them so they'd be in some sort of chronological order and then deal out ten of them at random.

What most music videos do is present a series of quick images. Our mind then processes those images. "That's a church! I've been to a church like that. It's probably this type of church in that kind of neighborhood." The images themselves provide our brain visual entertainment. And our brain tries to create a story that ties the images together.

It certainly leaves blanks to be filled in by the viewer's imagination, but I would've said that was a pretty common technique in storytelling across many media. Lovecraft was famous for his "it was too horrible to describe" approach to horror, and it's just as effective in comedy.

I'd dispute the suggestion that the imagery is just thrown together at random. To me it looks pretty calculated, intended to point the viewer in a particular direction before upsetting that expectation.

The priest gets a lot of screen time, and the camera dwells a lot on his face. I mentioned above that I'm mildly face-blind, and IRL I have a lot of difficulty reading people's moods from their faces, but even to me those choices are clearly intended to signal that this guy is feeling some strong emotion and trying to deal with something - he's not just a supporting character, he's a protagonist. When he lingers in the doorway looking at the bride before approaching her, that says that his conflict involves her in some way, and doorways tend to symbolise a decision to be made.

Meanwhile, when the priest isn't in shot, the camera spends a lot of time with the bride and her interactions with men. She sits and exchanges meaningful glances with the organist; her interaction with the best man is suggestive; most heavy-handed of all, Leather Jacket Beard Guy has the matching half to her heart necklace and crosses out the groom's name on the notice outside the church. We don't need the credits to tell us that he's a jealous ex, and we are almost certainly intended to wonder why on earth he would be invited to the wedding.

We also get a little bit of symbolism with the misplaced rings, a clue that something's going to go wrong with this wedding, if we hadn't already figured that out from context.

So the priest has some sort of internal conflict involving the bride, something that may derail the wedding, and it's strongly suggested that the bride might not have eyes solely for her fiance. Put those together, and the obvious cliché is that he's in love with her. (It wouldn't be the first time somebody's told that story in a music video!) Woman's fickleness is a pretty popular theme with male storytellers.

But here it's a conjuring trick - divert the audience's attention to stop them from thinking about other possibilities, about what they're not seeing. In this case, it distracts us from realising that we've seen very little of the groom.

I'm not arguing that this is Oscar material! But it's not just random wedding scenes mashed together; there's purpose to the way they are assembled.

There aren't a lot of music videos that actually tell a story. My favorite is Semisonic's Closing Time. An extremely clever video. Ed Sheeran has a couple, Perfect and Galway Girl.

I think it varies a lot by band and genre. Some artists love their story videos.

Rammstein's Sonne is a retelling of Snow White with a different spin on it. Rosenrot is yet another priest-in-love story. Most of their others also tell some kind of story, as best I can recall, though with clips like "Deutschland" things get pretty surreal and disjointed.

ASP's Me is a Poe/Burton-esque gothic horror story. Astoria verfallen is another horror piece with definite echoes of The Shining, though that video's not a complete story in itself - more of an intro to a concept album.

Richard Marx' Hazard covers much of the same ground as the song, but it fills in some more detail, without giving a definite answer to the main question.

Thanks to everybody who's given their suggestions - I will have to check these out!

 

[Bramblethorn]

The only ones I can mention by name are 'Hot For Teacher' and 'Cherry Pie', which are certainly Lit material.

Ha! Yes, can't argue with that.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Althought I'm lukewarm on the music, I've always liked this video and have thought it could be adapted into a nice Lit story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmKAn8rNbKg

Aww, yes. The music isn't something I'd listen to on its own, but it feels right for the video.

 

[Hypoxia]

Back in the day, one could perform with voice back by an instrument or three. Now cameras and a video-edit warez suite are needed. It's evolution in action.

 

[8letters]

It certainly leaves blanks to be filled in by the viewer's imagination, but I would've said that was a pretty common technique in storytelling across many media.

Sorry, the blanks are huge. The characters are just images. What do we know about the bride other than she's a bride? What do we know about the groom other than he's a groom? The priest? The organist? Leather Jacket Beard Guy?

Because the characters are just images, the last few scenes could have been completely different and yet been "consistent" with what went before. The bride could have left the wedding with the Leather Jacket Beard Guy. Or the organist. Or the priest. To me, all of those endings would have been more consistent with the images before than the actual ending. Or the wedding could have ended in a fight. When the groom put the ring on the bride, I half-expected it to draw blood like Billy Idol's "White Wedding". Instead of putting a ring on the bride's finger, the groom could have put a dog collar around her neck. I could go on and on.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I’ve considered the 80s to be the hey-day of story-music videos. Thought we had a vibrant and viable new art form on the scene. The decline? Maybe cost, maybe interest . . .
There were some good political ones, like Genesis’ Land of Confusion ;

and some self-referential, like this one from Phil Collins, where he meets with a number of video producers who each have a different model for his video, and each is based on a different genre, including music videos themselves. A high point is when a Japanese producer is reciting the stanza in Japanese that’s playing while the translator is reciting it in English.

Don’t Lose My Number

In a more Literotical vein, my favourite is Cyndi Lauper’s paean to teenage (oops! Sorry, Laurel) masturbation, She Bop .

See how many euphemisms, allusions, metaphors, and images related to masturbation you can find (including Dr. Siggy’s Masterbingo).

The Pointer Sister’s I’m So Excited is a fairly sexy video about getting ready for a night of pleasure. Pay close attention from 54 to 57 seconds, and not at her eyes - focus lower.

Enough for now. Perhaps I’ll be back with a few more from the olden days.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Nina was the one who did it for me:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=La4Dcd1aUcE

And Kim Wilde, with her perky little breasts. Ooo

https://youtu.be/xt5i7irTOls

Didn't much care if a story was being told or not!

 

[Bramblethorn]

Sorry, the blanks are huge. The characters are just images. What do we know about the bride other than she's a bride?

Quite a bit, actually. Have a look at 3:11 of the video. What do you see, and more importantly, what do you not see?

She's arrived at the church early - give or take the priest and organist, she seems to be the first person there. That's not normal for a bride at a wedding; the cliché is that the bride is the last person to arrive.

She's walking around the church. She sits briefly next to the organist, and looks at him unhappily, but whatever she wants from him she doesn't seem to get it. Later, she gets a little over-familiar with the best man, but he doesn't seem to reciprocate.

She's doing her own makeup and dress for her own wedding, without a single friend or attendant in sight. That's definitely not normal.

She's wearing an old-fashioned dress that looks like a heirloom. Usually something like that would come from the bride's mother, but there's no mother in sight - is she an orphan, perhaps?

She has kept the half-a-heart necklace from an ex, and she's thinking about it on the day she's getting married to somebody else. That... might not be so unusual, but it definitely isn't healthy.

And when she walks down the aisle, the groom's side of the church is pretty full, but her side is COMPLETELY EMPTY. Even her ex is sitting over on the groom's side.

That's not just a bunch of random scenes from a wedding. That's a sequence of images put together to signal that Wendy (that's her name) is alone and unhappy at her own wedding, and not exactly blissfully in love with the man she's about to marry.

Probably some other stuff I've missed, but even that much seems like a pretty significant amount of information about her, even if there are some deliberate gaps in the picture.

What do we know about the groom other than he's a groom?

Like I say, I'm not great at reading people, but to me Ryan looks pretty nervous, as if he also has doubts about this wedding. We know that unlike the bride, he has plenty of friends/family willing to show up for this. Beyond that, we don't get a lot, but that's kind of the point; we're not meant to think too closely about him before the twist.

The priest?

Again, quite a bit, see my previous post.

The organist?

Not a great deal, other than the important fact that he's cute AF. *checks earpiece* or maybe that's just my personal opinion.

Leather Jacket Beard Guy?

We know he's Wendy's ex, but that he's sitting on the groom's side of the church, so he's got some connection there. We also know he's the kind of guy who wears a leather jacket to a formal event, and that he's a reckless/impulsive kind of guy - not just that he crosses out Ryan's name on the wedding notice, but also that he spits the lid of his marker away. He's going to ruin that pen. What an asshole.

It's not exactly a full bio, but it's enough to establish a type.

Because the characters are just images, the last few scenes could have been completely different and yet been "consistent" with what went before. The bride could have left the wedding with the Leather Jacket Beard Guy. Or the organist. Or the priest. To me, all of those endings would have been more consistent with the images before than the actual ending.

There certainly are other ways it could have ended that would have been consistent with what we've seen so far, but that's not exactly uncommon in storytelling.

(And we don't really know that she didn't leave with one of those guys. My reading of it is that Ryan needed a show wedding to appease his parents, and Wendy went along with it either for his sake or because he was making it worth her while - but that's certainly not the only possibility.)

 

[Hypoxia]

I saw the OP video, not with a critical eye, only as a viewer. Like I've said, I'm old and disconnected, so any modern references blew by me. I heard grinding music that I turned down. I saw wispy images that didn't connect with my short attention span and non-analytical mind. I tried it again and saw nothing memorable. Guys kiss. Okay. Next.

Was the video meant to impress music buyers, or critics? There's a truism: Writers writing for other writers should send letters. So, musicians trying to impress critics should supply cocaine and oral sex. Or pinball machines. That's how TOMMY succeeded -- a producer told a pinball-addict top rock critic that pinballs were involved. It worked.

Storytelling with music. Hmmm. Is it music supporting a (mis)understandable story, or a (mis)understandable story decorated with musical bits? How mind-enhanced must the audience be to grok what's happening? Sure, 2001 was best on LSD. Ooh, the flashes...

 

[Etaski]

Very, very nice find, Bramblethorn. I love your critique of the video, and I genuinely enjoyed the song.

I noticed all those same oddities--all deliberate choices of you know anything about either theater or film making, and you have to extrapolate some reasons for what you observe. I love that.

I know I've "deconstructed" storytelling videos before, but it's been a while and I can't think of one quite like this off the top of my head. However, there was always a "storytelling" song from 1992 where the video did very well at "fleshing out" the bare-bones story of the lyrics. It's a murder mystery rather than a potential Lit story, and there are multiple conclusions to come to, depending on which details in the video you focus upon.

A moody song, but good, and enjoyable enough for a listen/watch, I think:
Richard Marx, "Hazard"