Narrative and Performance in Rock Videos

Joel Senior

How Are They Used?

• Narrative in rock videos is used very similarly to narrative in pop videos because the both tell a story relevant to the lyrics. Rock uses narrative to cleverly select certain clips at key point in the song.

• Performance in a rock promo often shows the band playing either onstage or in an estranged location, often during the peak of a song

Narrative

• An example of a rock promo with narrative in is Bon Jovi and their song ‘Always’. It is a love song that portrays the lyrics exactly as a video showing a couples differences.

Performance

• The Foo Fighters video ‘The Pretenders’ is one that shows performance nearly all the way through. This video hints narrative but it is not relevant to the lyrics at all.

How They Intertwine

• The way that performance and narrative intertwine in a rock promo is by showing narrative all the way through until maybe the final chorus when the performance comes in.

• The Foo Fighters do this a lot with such songs of theirs including ‘Everlong’ and ‘Breakout’.

• The narrative is often relevant to lyrics but not always.