The reading for this week was situated around the concept of narrative/non-narrative in music videos. Vernallis explains that music videos are more complex that being simply narrative or anti-narrative and their role of “underscoring the music, highlighting the lyrics and showcasing the star” is something that must be considered.

When I think of music videos that tell conventional stories, I am immediately reminded of 2008 when Taylor Swift released her music video to Love Story. Perhaps this was especially obvious given the song title and it being based on one of the most well known narratives in the world, but this was certainly a video where from start to end it portrayed the formation of a relationship between Romeo and Juliette.

I find Vernallis’ stating, “music videos most often do not embody narrative” to be true though as I agree that Taylor Swift and her videos of generally an exception. Many videos encompass elements of narrative, however, a lot of the time they leave much of their content up to the interpretation of the audience and are regularly more random than anything, representing a message or meaning as opposed to telling a story.

If anyone, like me, feels the urge to revisit 2008 and the Love Story music video, here it is below: