In this music video there is a formula of Todorov’s narrative model as there is aspects of a story being told in chronological order, where Katy wakes up in a candy land then on her journey through this land comes into contact with other people then meets her villain, like a classic Wizard of Oz style narrative. There are also Todorov’s 5 stages taking place as the Equilibrium in this music video is where Katy wakes up in the world full of candy and chocolate, a woman’s favourite naughty pleasure, and adapts to her surroundings. She then comes into contact with Snoop Dogg playing her Villain, and he makes obstacles to tackle her, which through the Recognition she overcomes with the help of her new found candy friends and cream. She then battles Snoop Dogg and his army of gummy bears and wins through the reparation and finally at the end of the battle and music video Katy and Snoop have a beach party in harmony through the New Equilibrium.
Also Propps characters are signified through this music video as Katy Perry plays the hero as most artists do in there music videos and Snoop Dogg plays many roles like the Villain and Dispatcher as he is a Villain sending Katy on a misson to find her accomplices. The helper are the candy women that Katy helps escape Snoop Dogg’s delicious cages and also Katy plays a role as the princess as she and Snoop settle their differences and they live happily in this world of candy. It is obvious to know who plays the protagonist as the camera follows Katy through the music video and sees her overcome all these challenges, and Snoop would play the antagonist as he is the man with the evil army of gummy bears.
The structure of the narrative is linear as we follow Katy on her Journey bur also can be Parallel as we also see Snoop Dogg get up to his mischief to try and beat Katy Perry. Also this kind of narrative is divided up into performance and storyline as the record company is trying to boost Katy’s appearance so her audience will know her by her style. In this music video time is a period of days of a journey but there are no flashbacks or anything, this makes it more of a dreamland. There are many intertextual references, one is a reference to the Wizard of Oz as Katy’s storyline and journey is similar to Dorothy’s in the movie, there is also an intertextual reference to the movie Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory as the film is about candy and mountains of chocolate that a world is made of chocolate and in this music video Katy’s theme is candy and chocolate. There are also references to nursery rhymes like the ‘ginger bread man’ as in this music video Katy comes face to face with one and turns him good.
Alex, this is a very good start to developing your knowledge of music video narrative. You clearly understand Todorov's theory and have been able to apply it to this video. Remember that not all music videos will fit into the classic theory as easily. The Proppian character 'the helper' is someone who helps the hero, almost like a sidekick, and not someone who is helped by the hero. Very good understanding that the singer is presented as the hero through camera time they are given. Try to include binary opposition analysis as well and think about why this is important. Good understanding of intertextual references in this video too!
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