Music Video Mock - Mrs Potato Head

Ideas For Narrative For Music Video

When creating my surveymonkey survey, I had written a question asking about ideas for a music video to the song I am using. I had some good suggestions that I took into consideration when planning my music video.

• An abstract video, no real meaning just for aesthetics, pink/pastel colours, childhood elements such as teddy bears and dolls

• A video from childhood to adolescence, showing how girls learn that they have to become attractive to fit in at a young age (playing with barbies, toy makeup etc) 

• A video in which a girl tries to be like everybody else but decides she'd rather be herself instead.

For the first idea, I thought that this would be a good way of making my video aesthetically pleasing (the majority of those asked in the survey look for aesthetics the most in a video) but I didn't think I'd be able to achieve this as abstract videos require lots of editing and also I wouldn't be sure how to fill up the song's timing with just pretty visuals.

The second suggestion sounded really interesting and effective and I strongly considered the idea but I decided it would be difficult to get children in the video and retrieve the props needed to make it work.

The third idea is what gave me the most inspiration for a narrative video as it'd be relatable and also easy to film. Although I also think this idea might be too cliche and decided I needed to twist it and add more in order to make it effective and not boring. So my final idea for a narrative was to feature a girl who discovers the world of beauty and fashion and altering your appearance. She becomes very caught up in it all, changing her appearance drastically and trying to become skinner based on what she'd seen in TV's, magazines and mainly the girls around her whom she watches to try and take notes on how to become like them. She soon becomes obsessed with this lifestyle and it takes over her life. At the end of the video, nearing or at the end of the song, the narrative suddenly changes and focuses on the girl that the previous girl was watching and trying to be, but it turns out she is living the exact same lifestyle. The message of the narrative is that everybody is feeling the same way about themselves, even the most attractive of girls and models in magazines and it is not possible to be perfect to society as it is entirely subjective.

My Music Video Research Survey | Audience Research

Results (as of 10/12/15) out of 58 responses. 

How old are you?
14-16 = 3.45%
17 = 34.48%
18-25 = 58.62%
Over 25 = 3.45%

What genre of music do you listen to? Select all that apply.
For this question I got a lot of responses as I attached an 'other' option but the majority stated that they listened to Pop, Rock, Indie and Pop-Punk with Rock leading the poll with 82.14% and the minority liking Classical, Electronic/House and Film/Gaming soundtracks. 

What is your gender?
Male = 8.77%
Female = 82.46%
Other/Prefer not to say = 8.77%
1 Person skipped the question

Which is the most important aspect of a music video? Which draws you to a video the most?
A good narrative/storyline = 25.86%
Aesthetics 63.79%
An important message/moral to the story = 10.34%

Which platforms do you use to watch music videos? They could select all that applied. 
Youtube = 98.28%
TV Music Channels = 36.21%
Social Media Pages = 48.28%

What would you expect a music video for Mrs.Potato Head by Melanie Martinez to contain?

10 People answered with full comments. Best answers:

"I would expect to see unhappy girls having pressure of trying be beautiful and seeing beautiful girls made them trying to be like them. Then come the consequences of trying to be beautiful and in the end I would expect to see girls getting their confidence of being themselves and call themselves beautiful"

"Firstly, I adore this song. Secondly. because this is by her I would definitely expect a very child-like aesthetic to the video, using pastel colours throughout all of the mise-en-scene and incorporating children's objects/toys such as teddy bears and dummy's etc. I can actually see her getting a needle and pretending to inject the bear in a child-like girly manner."

"Soft lit video, lots of pastel colours, clear links to the lyrics and the message behind the song."

"probably be abstract and not have any meaning to the lyrics bright colours multiple effects"

"Pastel Colours, subtle feminist message"

"I would expect perhaps melanie on an operating table, shot from a birds eye view angle- tracking the usual conventions of plastic surgery including the paraphernalia and pen markings. Perhaps also magazines and mannequins in the mise en scene"

"Something exploring medias perception of young people, not being perfect its okay to be different"

Do you feel as though young people in society are pressured to look a certain way? Either by their peers or the media etc.?
Yes = 97.78%
No = 2.22%
13 people skipped this question

Would you be interested in viewing a music video which explored the pressure to be perfect in society? If not, why?

Yes = 91.11%
No = 8.89%
Responses for the 3 out of the 4 people that said No:
"Not original"
"They're too generic and unoriginal"
"A cliche that's been done before, very teen-bop"

Do you have any ideas for a music video about a girl who feels pressure to become physically attractive in order to fit in?

13 people answered. Best answers:

"Maybe seeing the effects on a young girl (toddler) would be powerful, showing how young girls are when they begin to be conditioned. A young girl playing with toys and starting to mimic them, like barbies and things, would be interesting."

"A couple of young girls playing with some makeup, making a mess, tilting camerawork, slightly creepy feeling to it."

"I think that when you get on the wrong side of social media young people certainly do take everything so seriously beauty-wise and I think giving them the message that no one actually cares what you wear or look like will be a brilliant message to give them."

"she doesn't fit in at first but then changes to look like everyone else but then realises she hates it and changes back to being her true self again"

"There's a psychology theory in regards to persuasion, saying how to persuade people effectively you need an element of fear (not too drastic but not too weak) to make people listen to the overall message... Maybe this could be helpful in some way"

"Girl flicking through magazine e.g.glamour mag & all girls stereotypical size and look. Maybe show a queue of people waiting to go into a music gig...all shapes, sizes, genres. All talking to each other with no stigma attached."

"A girl who isn't 'physically attractive' who is in a friendship group full of 'attractive' girls and changes herself to fit in but she doesn't like the type of attention she gets so she realises that she feels more comfortable being who she is rather than a clone of everyone else?" 

Visual Essay - Audience Theory - Halsey

Stuart Hall's Reception Theory
Reception Theory is when producers or directors construct a text encoded with a hidden message or meaning that the producers or directors want to convey to the audience. If done correctly the audience will be able to pick up the meaning or message straight away, but the audience will need to be reminded of the message through out the media text. This could be done through actions within the text or with dialogue if appropriate for that form of media text.

Stuart Hall identified three types of audiences reading messages.

1) Dominant

2) Negotiated

3) Oppositional

Dominant is about what the audience wants to hear from people and agreeing, but with limited knowledge on the subject.

Negotiated is when the audience agrees, disagrees or questions a political speech or news broadcast due to perviously held news, as many people in America question FOX news as it has been seen in the past as a biased news outlet who support the Republican party.

Oppositional is when the audience recognises the Dominant message but rejects it due to culture or political opinion, as people actively rejects any political speech from a party on any subject and acts as the opposition. When the audience is in this state you can’t get any message across to them, as they have already made up their mind on a person or subject.

In Halsey's music video, she is trying to put across an important yet 'controversial' message; that homosexual couples are the same as heterosexual couples and should be portrayed the same instead of the former being more sexualised than the latter. they have arguments and issues in the relationship just like any other couple and should be represented the same and represented more in the media. I can imagine that the majority of reading messages will be either dominant or oppositional. Many will love the message and agree, especially the LGBTQ community as they want to be represented more. People want to see more variations of people represented in the media, people they can relate to and who are just like them, portrayed in a positive light.

On the other hand, many will take offense to the video. Particularly people that live in much less tolerant places or people with a strict religion where any type of relationship other than a heterosexual one is forbidden and in some places, punishable. It is hard to change the minds of these people after they have it ingrained in their mind that a homosexual relationship is disgusting or a sin. They would immediately reject the music video's message and even Halsey and her music for condoning 'that behaviour.' Halsey responded when she heard that her music video was gaining controversy:

"You know what’s funny is that I’ve been hearing so much about Ghost being a provocative video when I put out the same video with me and the lead was a male, and if anything, it has way more sexual content and everyone was like “Oh, what a great love story! This is 90’s love.” Then I put out a video where I’m making out with a girl and all of a sudden everyone is like “THIS IS PORNOGRAPHIC!” and it blows my mind that it can be considered more provocative or near pornographic because of that which is lowkey why I made the f**king video."

Blumler and Katz Uses And Gratifications Theory

Uses and Gratifications Theory is a popular approach to understanding mass communication. The theory places more focus on the consumer, or audience, instead of the actual message itself by asking “what people do with media” rather than “what media does to people." It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfil specific gratifications. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification.

Visual Essay - Representation Theory - Halsey

About The Artist

21 year old Ashley Frangipane best known by her stage name Halsey is an American singer/songwriter and recording artist. She started songwriting at the age of 17. In early 2014, she signed her first recording contract with Astralwerks. In late 2014, Halsey released her debut EP, titled Room 93. Halsey released her debut studio album, Badlands, in August 2015, which included two of her most popular tracks from Room 93: "Ghost" and "Hurricane". She is the one of the newest rising stars in her indie-pop genre, recently selling out all of the dates of her February 2016 U.K Tour in less than three minutes. She is praised for not conforming to stereotypes and becoming the 'voice of her generation' by speaking out about important social issues such as oppression against minorities in the media. 

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory

'The Male Gaze' in media visual text was a theory created by feminist Laura Mulvey famous for her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' in 1973. The Male Gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male, it highlights the women's curves and other sexualised body parts such as legs and lips using cinematography and slow motion effects. She claims that in media text such as music videos, the women included don't bring anything to the narrative and are to be seen and not heard, used solely as objects/props/a trophy for the man to win. Despite this, there are many videos that contradict this theory such as Rihanna's 'Rude Boy' music video in which Rihanna is the main focus of the video and the men are in fact the sexualised props. Halsey's video for Ghost - the lead single from her debut album Badlands both contradicts and conforms to Mulvey's theory. It conforms slightly due to the sexual scenes between the two female protagonists who are scarcely dressed and due to the scene where Halsey is briefly seen clothed in a bath. These conform because the heterosexual men watching would sexualise the two females but really the music video is more of a contradiction to the theory than not. The video includes no males whatsoever, and the lesbian couple are there for each other and not for any men in the video. The video revolves around their relationship, and how Halsey copes when her love interest leaves midway through the story and is more about the love between them rather than any sexual aspects included in the narrative. I have discussed this theory more on a previous blog post.

Richard Dyer's Star Theory

Richard Dyer's star theory is the idea that icons/celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain. He believes that stars are constructed to represent 'real people' experiencing real emotions. Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose; to make money out of audience, who respond to various elements of a star’s personality by buying records and becoming fans. Halsey started out as a fan herself, writing songs about her idols to put on her popular fandom style blog and because of how relatable she is, young people typically girls tend to gravitate towards her as she's just like them. She had this down-to-earth personality before signing to a label so I don't feel she entirely applies to Dyer's theory like a bigger pop star would, but her personality is most likely encouraged to ensure more sales as how 'real' she is definitely contributes to album and ticket sales.  Overall Halsey is well known for not doing what institutions and management tell her in order to break down the barrier between fan and artist so its likely that she is one of the only artists not to conform to this theory but this again could be part of the plan to gain more fans and create more sales for the institution. It is difficult to know for sure whether an artist is truly 'real' or manufactured for profit. 

Tessa Perkins' Stereotypes

Tessa Perkins (1979) identifies 5 assumptions;
• Stereotypes are not always negative (e.g. 'The French are good cooks').
• They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful ( e.g. 'upper class twits').
• They can be held about one's own group.
• They are not rigid or unchanging.
• They are not always false.

Halsey is well known for breaking stereotypes in the music industry. Her video for Ghost is a good example of this as it doesn't feature the typical heterosexual couple, it instead features two females in a romantic relationship and instead of them both being white, they are a mixed race couple. It also breaks stereotypes in the sense that a lot of media that contains representation often focuses on the sexual aspect for the male viewer. 
This video instead is focused on the romantic relationship and portrays them as a regular couple instead of just highlighting the fact that they are both female. Halsey herself as an artist tries to do things that aren't the norm in the industry, but she also conforms to stereotypes in terms of her music such as her vocals which are similar to other female 'indie' artists. 

Visual Essay - Narrative Theory - Halsey's Ghost Music Video

Bordwell and Thompson - Story and Plot


According to Bordwell and Thompson, narrative describes how a story is told, how the material is selected and arranged in order to achieve particular effects on the audience: linear or non-linear (episodic, flash-back etc.) 

Bordwell and Thompson offer two distinctions between story and plot. These relate to the deigetic world of the narrative that the audience are positioned to accept and that which the audience actually see. This is based on the Russian Film Theory:
In their theory there are 4 different sections they focus on; Graphic, Rhythmic, Spatial & Temporal editing.

This editing is all about the mise-en-scene, what we are shown on the screen, thinking about the pictorial qualities within a video.
- Patterns, light and dark, colour similarities and differences.
- Can be used to create 'smooth continuity' or abrupt contrast.
- Graphic match - shots link together.
- Graphic continuity - Point of interest stay the same throughout cuts.
- Graphic discontinuity - Everything keeps on changing, plays around with juxtaposition.


Bordwell and Thompson never did come up with a complete narrative theory but they believed that a chain of events within a media form causes effects on a relationship occurring in that time and space and the narrative shapes this material in terms of time. This can be portrayed through using effects to show the time by using flash backs, forwards, slow motion and speeding up. 

The song Ghost by Halsey is a 'love story' between a heterosexual couple in which the female is conflicted about their relationship. She likes being used and gets a thrill out of being with emotionally deceptive men but is also tired of it and the way he comes and going as he pleases (like a ghost) but her feelings of love conflict with the rational decisions to leave him. To apply the narrative of Halsey's song Ghost to the music video for this essay, I will be focusing on the plot of the music video as it differs to the narrative of the lyrics within the song. 


The music video narrative is simpler and a different story to what the lyrics imply in the song itself. The music video is again about a love story but between two females in Japan, their relationship has an unfortunate end when the artist's love interest leaves and she returns as a ghost, hence the song title, haunting her thoughts and memories of their past together. 

The music video applies to this theory especially as it revolves around the idea of flashbacks and it is clearly seen through the editing. The music video begins with the central character reminiscing and the audience is then presented with a variety of scenes of this central character and her love interest using bright pink and neon colours which shows contrast to the beginning where she is alone and in the dark. These scenes continue and stay the same until the point of conflict happens and the central character is alone. She continues to be in the same place with the same neon colours but there is a slight dimness to reflect her emotions and to show the audience that she is now alone. As she continues to reminisce, her past lover appears in the same places as a hallucination, the lighting remains dim to show she is not truly there and then but cuts back to the beginning and ends with her alone in the dark again, the whole video taking place in her memories.  This narrative is solely told using mise-en-scene/editing and lighting to show emotion and to show what scenes in the video are flashbacks and what is currently happening in the present.

Sven Carlson's 3 Areas of Narrative Structure

Sven Carlson's theory is that binary oppositions drive the narration of the music video forward, e.g black and white theme. Also that there are two main types of music video; performance and conceptual. Performance clips where the video mainly shows an artist (or artists) singing and/or dancing. Conceptual clips are where something else is shown during the song's duration which may have symbolism or an artistic meaning. Halsey's Ghost video is conceptual although Halsey is seen singing at  the video's intro, end and then at small parts through the narrative.

The video has oppositions that drive the narration such as the neon bright lighting when Halsey is with her love interest and the darkness when she leaves, and the conflicting dim lighting when her love interest appears in a hallucination. This can be seen in the images to the left. The video is split into these parts to help you follow the story. Alone and reminiscing (dark lighting), memory with the love interest (bright colours), love interest leaves (dark), love interest appears in a dream (bright with dark undertones), back to alone and reminiscing (dark).

Tim O'Sullivan - Culture and Society


Tim O'Sullivan (1998) argues that all media texts tells us some kind of story. Through careful mediation, media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves - not our own personal stories but the story of us as a culture or set of cultures. Narrative theory sets out to show that what we experience when we 'read' a story is to understand a particular set of constructions or conventions - to be then aware of how these constructions are put together.

Halsey's video tells a story about how our society has grown to be more tolerant of people's sexuality, race etc although we are not yet there on full acceptance it shows how much progress is made. It still hasn't become the norm for representation of different sexualities like this to exist but it shows how much we have grown since it is now possible for there is a music video with two female protagonists in love and instead of being pornographic or using offensive lesbian stereotypes, they are portrayed as a normal couple. There was controversy and some outrage but overall the music video was accepted and praised for its representation of homosexuals instead of it just being another standard love story about a heterosexual white couple.

Todorov - Narrative Structure

Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film/media product. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and again equilibrium.

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:
1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)
2. A disruption of that order by an event.
3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.
4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.
5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium.

Halsey's video is almost entirely narrative (minus some performance) and doesn't apply to Todorov's theory entirely, at the beginning is technically the ending of the video with the shots of Halsey by herself reminiscing on what had happened, instead of it beginning with the state of equilibrium which begins after this in the shots of Halsey with her lover. The next stages apply as what follows is a disagreement between the two (A disruption of that order by an event) and then the love interest leaving (the recognition that the disorder has occurred) but Todorov's theory is no longer relevant to Halsey's video after the 3rd stage. After the love interest leaves, there is no resolution. There appears to be one but it turns out the love interest being back is just in her head and instead she is alone and reflecting on the situation. I dont think this applies to the 4th and 5th stages as nothing is done to repair the situation and there is no new equilibrium as the video ends with Halsey sad about what had happened. Because of this, Todorov's theory is not entirely accurate for every media product although sometimes certain elements of the theory do apply and Halsey's video is an example of this. 


Pam Cook's Narrative Structure Theory



According to Pam Cook (1985), the standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:

• Linearity of cause and effect within an over all trajectory of enigma resolution.
• A high degree of narrative closure.
• A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially by spatial and temporal coherence. 

Pam Cook's theory applies to Halsey's Ghost video in some ways however also rejects certain factors of and isn't entirely accurate. The video is an accurate representation of a normal relationship involving two females thus creating verisimilitude through coherence of space and time as mentioned in the 'Hollywood Structure'. 

The areas of Pam Cook's theory which are rejected and don't apply are the points to do with cause and effect and having narrative closure, two things that I do not think this video has. Although the music video has a narrative in that it tells a typical love story, when it comes to narrative structure the video does not conform to a particular structure/theory because the video goes back and forth between locations and time periods in the relationship and is not presented in chronological order. It would be easier to apply a narrative theory to a TV show as that shows cause and effect much more explicitly as they have audio to help with the portrayal of the plot, emotions and deeper meanings. This also doesn't have a high degree of narrative closure due to the video not having a resolution and ends at its conflict. I definitely don't think the theory applies to all kinds of products and would fit better with other types of media such as films or TV, and using Ghost as an example, the video rejects the theory more than it applies to it. 

Lyrical Analysis: Melanie Martinez - Mrs Potato Head

Halsey's 'Ghost' Music Video - Conforms or Contradicts Laura Mulveys Theory?

'The Male Gaze' in media visual text was a theory created by feminist Laura Mulvey famous for her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' in 1973. The Male Gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male, it highlights the women's curves and other sexualised body parts such as legs and lips using cinematography and slow motion effects. She claims that in media text such as music videos, the women included don't bring anything to the narrative and are to be seen and not heard, used solely as objects/props/a trophy for the man to win. Despite this, there are many videos that contradict this theory such as Rihanna's 'Rude Boy' music video in which Rihanna is the main focus of the video and the men are in fact the sexualised props.

The video that I will be analysing is another example of a contradiction to Mulvey's theory, but i'll also be commenting on how, in some ways, it conforms to the theory. The video in question is Halsey's music video for 'Ghost', the lead single to her debut album 'Badlands.' Halsey has always been one to disregard stereotypes in pop culture since her embark onto the music scene, regarding what she wears and also in who she is as most common popular pop artists are heterosexual white females, Halsey is a bisexual biracial female and this makes her stand out in the industry.


Her music video for Ghost gathered a lot of attention including praise but also a lot of controversy. When deciding on her narrative for the video, a love story, with the director; he made a comment about casting her male love interest. Upon hearing this, Halsey was aggravated about how he assumed that the couple in the narrative would be heterosexual, instead they casted an asian female to play Halsey's love interest for her video set in Tokyo. The sexual chemistry between the two females caused a lot of stir but it was also praised for Halsey being so brave as to break the music video stereotype by having a video centered around a lesbian couple instead of the 'norm' and a heterosexual couple.

Going back to Laura Mulvey, her theory is heavily criticised for being so
hetero-normative, claiming that whatever a female does in a music video is for a man's pleasure, completely ignoring the homosexual viewers, especially the
men, who would have no sexual interest in the female in the video. Her theory claims that any women that watch are simply comparing themselves to the women in the video, again ignoring any females in the LGBTQ community that watch.

Ghost both contradicts and conforms to Mulvey's theory. It conforms slightly due to the sexual scenes between the two female protagonists who are scarcely dressed and due to the scene where Halsey is briefly seen clothed in a bath. These conform because the heterosexual men watching would sexualise the two females but really the music video is more of a contradiction to the theory than not. The video includes no males whatsoever, and the lesbian couple are there for each other and not for any men in the video. The video revolves around their relationship, and how Halsey copes when her love interest leaves midway through the story and is more about the love between them rather than any sexual aspects included in the narrative. Halsey and her love interest also don't conform to society's stereotypes of females, or of lesbian females. They wear short blue and pink wigs in the video which is unalike other videos, and the love interest is asian as opposed to white. They are also portrayed as regular females as opposed to some media texts that portray lesbians as 'Butch'/Masculine.

Halsey's video for Ghost is very cleverley done in the sense that it completely eliminates all the main music video stereotypes/tropes. It features a biracial lesbian relationship as opposed to a heterosexual white one like most videos, it manages to create an entire video, that includes sex, to not be about the sexual aspects but instead be about the relationship between the two girls and its unfortunate end and it disregards any negative stereotypes surrounding homosexual females. Ghost is an excellent example on why Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory has a lot of faults and although it does make a lot of sense regarding many popular music videos, it doesn't necessarily apply to every one.

Coursework Brief

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;

•a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);

•a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).