Applying Narrative Theory

The Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather

When applying narrative theory to this music video, I realised that the music video itself is abstract based. This means there is no particular narrative that the video follows, but it has the same theme running throughout; teenage culture. Tim O’Sullivan’s theory of how every media text tells some kind of story links to this music video as the audience is almost taken on a journey through a group of teenagers life’s and experiences. The video itself contains constant cuts from scene to scene as it shows how fast paced teenage life can be. Sven Carllson’s theory that media texts usually fall into 2 categories being performance clip or a conceptual clip relates to this music video as the video itself is abstract. The purpose of this video is to portray teenage culture to the audience in a way that makes it look fun and that teenagers have no responsibility. Although this is not a true reflection of all teenage culture, it creates an image of what is expected from teenagers in regards to rebellion. Michael Shore’s theory that music videos are surface without substance can be reflected in the music video as the short clips that are merged together don’t really have a meaning, they are just showing different experiences that a group of friends have. This is shown through the cinematography as it cuts certain areas from the screen and is sometimes all over the place, which makes it seem like the footage has been taken by someone in the group. The use of this bad cinematography reflects how sometimes music videos don’t have to have an obvious meaning, but there may be a hidden one when the audiences fully understands the narrative. Taking into consideration Kate Domaille’s theory of there only being 8 narratives, this music video could be interpreted to be ‘Candide’ as the audience see the teenagers in their journey as being invincible, and the actions of the teenager reflect that mind set by the experiences they have/take part in.