Firth- Media Theorist

In 1998 a Media theorist called Firth came up with a way of Analysing Music Videos. He Split Them into 3 Categories.

Performance: To Convey a sense of in-concert experience.
'Performance oriented visuals cue viewers that the recording of the music is the recording of the music is the most significant element.'

Narrative: Linear stories- love stories are the Most popular
'Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait  for something to happen' (Schwichtenberg 1992)

Conceptual: Metaphors to create a mood, offer multiple meanings

This Video of Guns N Roses-Paradise City is a good example of a Performance aspect of Firth. Throughout the whole video there are basically all shots of the band performing as opposed to a popular video. This is showing the audience that the Performance to them is more important than the Music promotional tool that alot of music videos are made for.

 

 This Video for Blur- Coffee and TV is a good example of a Narrative Video. If you were to ignore the song and focus only on the Video you would see a clear Narrative structure. This is a common convention of alot of indie rock videos because they tend to focus more on there creative nature and use music videos as a tool to do that.