Narrative Theory

Within the ‘Some Nights’ music video

Background Information• ‘Some Nights’ is a track by the Indie Pop band,

F.U.N. The artists originated from new York city and released the song on the 4th of June in 2012.

• The lyrics within the song itself, tell the story of a, now middle aged, soldier who appears to be reflecting on his past and the time he served. The song reveals the emotional road of the soldier and reinforces the horrors and damage that war can cause to those who are involved.

The Beginning• At the beginning of the music video, we gain an

insight into the life style of the ‘main character’ via the close ups that we have of both the horses and the hands on the wooden fence of the paddock. However, there are then close ups of younger individuals who are within close contact with one another, the shots then continue to flick back and forth between the ‘main character’ who is revealed as an older male and the younger version of himself within a period of war. This part of the music video represents a clear divide and opposition between the two time periods; the brighter scenes are present day and the darker memories of which are shown to be graphic and damaging somewhat.

The first verse of the song is used as more of an establishing period of when we are thrown back, as viewers, into the memories of the soldier. There are establishing shots of the groups of men and the formations that they are carrying out within the war. However, throughout the first verse and linking to the rest of the song itself, we can notice a range of shots of the artist himself. The artist portrays a general within the war; leading the men, including the main character, into battle.

Similarly, the editing within this shot also aids the idea of the first verse being of an establishing period. There is a mid close up, panning shot of the artist behind the men’s backs as they stand in line. This idea unites the audience equally with the soldiers as we are placed in line also.

When linking to Goodwin’s theory we can notice that the first verse includes a reference between the lyrics and the visuals. For example, we hear the lyrics ‘I still don’t know what I stand for…’ as we see a soldier fall to the ground, leaving implications that as soldiers, they do not stand for long. This relates to the overall opposition between present day and memories due to the chaos of the memories obscuring the peace of present day.

Chorus• Aspects of opposition are somewhat forgotten in this

section of the song for the imagery of present day is less frequent. Here, instead we see a rise in the violence and war themed imagery, as the men continue into battle.

• The lyrics here that read ‘This is it boys, this is war…’ we can notice are an intertextual link to the English version of Nena’s 1983, ’99 Luftballons’ as within which the same lyrics are used in the same scenario; talking about the issues of war.

• Again, we can see throughout this part of the music video, there are similar shots of the artists themselves. It is a possibility that this idea in the video is due to the needs of the record label and the ways in which the artists need to be represented.

• The editing between shots also becomes a lot faster as the chorus begins and this idea represents the narrative through, as mentioned before, the violence and the fast paced atmosphere during war.

• The next shots that are featured within the music video are of a different nature. The first shot that is seen as the chorus fades out, is that of the younger male within an apparent bath tub, writing a letter to whom at this point we are unsure. There are then equal links between lyrics and visuals again, that link to Goodwin’s Theory, as the lyrics read ‘She stops my bone from wondering just who I am…’ and at the same time we are given images of the female that was seen at the beginning of the video. Therefore, in terms of narrative, this implies that the female is also a memory in some ways as the soldier is seen to be saddened by being apart from her.

• The editing takes place along side the music in this section and so relates to Goodwin’s Theory once more through the musical and lyrical references. For example, there are three fast paced shots of different soldiers, ending with our main character, that cut in time with three separated beats.

Ending of the video• As the ending of the video approaches, the story line

seemingly concludes. This is shown through the way that some of then men are walking away form the battle ground of which leaves implications of them returning home. Additionally, the letter that viewers saw earlier in the video had been sent to the female that was featured at the beginning of the video and therefore retells the lyrics, of which portray disappointment in the way that the war had been presented previously. This is shown through the lyrics that read “I washed my hands of that for this? I missed my mum and dad for this?” showing that the war had previously been shown to be something wonderful and it had now become apparent that this was not correct.

• There are relations in terms of lyrics and visuals again, for we see the calmer present day male with his horses in the tranquil environment as the lyrics read “man, you wouldn’t believe the most amazing things that can…” then as the second part of the lyrics reads “…some terrible nights…” we see the shots flick back to the soldiers toward the end of the battle.