To further our understanding of music video conventions we looked into Roland Barthes' narrative codes and applied them to MTV music video award winner's and nominees videos. Below is a brief summary of the codes:
Enigma Code - Offers a puzzle and delays the answer (this keeps the audience involved and interested in the narrative). Commonly used in Katy Perry's firework video; which follows the lives of five people, who all are facing problems of quite typical listeners to her music.
Action Code - An event having a series of logical consequences which helps the audience understand better the narrative.
Semic Code - The connotations suggested by the characters, settings and props. For example, in Eminem and Rihanna's love the way you lie there is a constant image of fire, having a semic code of anger and rage.
Symbolic Code - The idea of narratives being based around opposing forces. In order to figure out the bases of a film you need to work out the representation portrayed.
Cultural Code - The knowledge that audience's have to bring to a video to fully understand it, this is obvious in Maroon 5's moves like jagger, which could be seen as a homage to Mick Jagger's lifestyle.
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