One of the videos which I consider to be a great example of a 'music video form' is
MAN DOWN by RIHANNA.
The video consists of a narrative and stucture. At the opening scene we can see the artist (who also plays the main character) shooting a man during the day in a busy and crowded street. Theres no music during this scene as it tries to create a suspense feeling for the audience. We can only hear diagetic sounds. Later on in the video the singer uses lyrics "I just shot a man down in central station'' which makes a connection between the opening scene and the song itself.
The music itself starts playing only at 0:49 sec into the video (after the titles say 'YESTERDAY MORNING') the following scenes are the flashbacks of what happened to the character in order to explain why she shot that man.
It all begins in a joyfull mood, where she rides a bike around the village, talks to people, etc. There are some establishing shots of other people in the village and the location itself.
Later on, in the video the mood changes as the character goes to the party and one of the gang memebers (previously seen in the video) rapes or violently abuses her (audience can only guess as it's not shown in the video clearly). She then runs off and finds a gun to kill him.
I believe that this is a good narative music video exmaple in order to get more audience attention as the story reminds of a thriller genre film.
NARRATIVE PART
PERFORMANCE PART:
Throughout the music video the artist is performing in four different locations. These are the base tracks that have been placed inbetween the narrative ones in order to promote artist itself and help her engage with the audience while breaking the 4th wall.
The first location is used at the beggining; while there's a positive mood flowing around some shots of artist sitting on a bed in a small room with serious face makes it more interesting to watch as it creates a great contrast between the two atmospheres.
PERFORMANCE PART:
The second location is the beach, the artist is walking and doing some dance moves in the sea while the waves splash around her legs (there are a few shots of boys playing on the same shore but that has nothing to do with the narrative). This once again contrasts with the narrative part of the video (the filter added also creates a huge contarst between warm and cold colours of the video).
PERFORMANCE PART:
The third performance basetrack has not been used a lot in this music video. It's very dark, it appears when the artist goes to the party. She is dancing and singing next to a wall with red flashing light around her. This straight away sets the mood as if something serious is about to happen.
PERFORMANCE PART:
The fourth performance basetrack is similar to the second one. It also contains cold colour effect (while first and third one have warm effect).
It appears after she leaves the party. The artist sits in the middle of the water surrounded by waterfalls and stones. She is crying, ripping her clothes and performing directly to the audience. This is effective as the narrative part also got to the point where something horrible is about to happend to her, and within this performance she is able to develop that mood further and reach audience's feelings.
EDITING:
I like the structure and editing of this music video. It contains lots of differnt shots, transitions and jump cuts. The idea of creating performance basetracks in various locations and moods and combining them with the narrative shots makes it interesting - as if you're watching a film.
Also, the filters gives it the 'vintage' look witch is good when reaching the target audience for this clip which is probably young females. It also makes the whole video more interesting to watch (as if watching an old tape film on projector).
THEORIES:
This music video supports Andrew Goodwin's theory which states that - The singer is used in the videos as both; narrator and character.
It's also an exmaple of the character breaking the 4th wall to involve the viewer at home