Music Videos with a Narrative

Fall Out Boy music videos are well known for having unrelated narratives which are enjoyable to watch. Here are some videos for example:



Fall Out Boy - Dance, Dance
From Under the Cork Tree, 2005

In this video we see the band as two different people, playing themself as the band at the prom and also as 'geeks' attending the prom. Audiences enjoy watching this video because it is funny to see the band members playing geeks and the narrative is amusing, such as when the gym teacher shouts at Pete Wentz, "Hurry up powder puff". This video is also quite relatable, more to American audiences as the band are American, and therefore makes the video enjoyable to watch.
The video sticks mostly to conventions of a film rather than a music video except for the occasional direct address from the band with the camera when they are performing on stage.




Fall Out Boy - Sugar We're Going Down
From Under the Cork Tree, 2005

This is another example of Fall Out Boy's music videos with a narrative. This one, however, is different to the previous example as the narrative does not relate to the lyrics.
In this video we see the band in a room performing the track, a common convention of 'band music', and we have a separate narrative of the guy and girl that are falling in love. The video is strange as the guy has antlers and therefore the girl's dad does not want her to see him, but in the revelation we see that the girl's father has deer feet. This strange unrealistic narrative makes the video enjoyable to watch as the audience wonder what the narrative has to do with the song.
The video breaks conventions of a film by having the band's performance, but otherwise follows the conventions with the narrative as there is an equilibrium - disruption - equilibrium and follows camera conventions with no eye contact with the camera or unusual camera shots.


Although these videos are enjoyable to watch there is the problem of does the narrative become more important than the music? But that really depends on the invidual viewers.