Narrative Case StudyPLAYING WITH FIRE PLAN B

Playing with fire is a hip hop track which was performed by Plan B, with vocals from the tracks producer and mixer Labrinth. The track was released on 3 December 2012 and was the fourth single from Plan B’s Ill manors soundtrack, a film directed by Plan B. The music video ‘Playing with Fire’ was directed by Colin Tilley, he also directed music video’s Alright by Kendrick Lamar and Anaconda by Nicki Minaj.

Concept of Music Video

The video shows gang life in London and how young people are being trapped into these gangs. We follow a young character named Jake who beats up his friend for some weed, he is then trapped within this gang and is forced to do violent actions, the lyrics ‘he’s just a kid’ are often used as a reminder that the actions he is performing are happening due to the twisted characters who are forcing him to act in this way. The video is quite advanced telling a story of how society has thrown kids like Jake out, and how the government are twisted, this is due to the lyrics used “now he’s just another poster boy for David Cameron’s broken Britain”. The video shows all the horrible events that happen within gang life to spark change.

Linear Narrative StructureThe music video conforms to that of a linear narrative structure, this is due to it being played in a chronological order, following the progression of the character Jake. The video cuts often to shots of Plan B and street dancers again conforming to the narrative structure, cutting away from the video to the artist. The video contains what is known as a closed text, this is where the meaning is explicit, this is due to the clear storyline shown throughout the music video shown . “Music videos may be structured around match on action with a strong sense of story telling which either illustrates, amplifies or contradicts the lyrics” – Goodwin. In Playing with Fire’s case the music video illustrates the lyrics and avoids often used montages within music videos amplifying the message within the lyrics.

Linear Narrative inter textual reference.

The music video starts in a similar way to that of Leftfields Afrika Shox. Showing how small this character Jake is and links to Afrika Shox protagonist who appears invisible to those around him, Jake is similar to this which explains Plan B’s reference to David Cameron, showing how these kids aren’t cared for. The music follows the structure of many Grime artists videos and songs, an example of this is Bugzy Malone’s M.E.N track. This is due to the strong topics often talked about within this music genre allowing the audience to relate to or understand, the videos leave a message which is something Playing with Fire does.

Performance and conceptualMusic videos are often put into two categories, being both performance clips and conceptual clips. A music video showing mostly an artist singing or dancing it is known as a performance clip for example Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’. However, when the clip shows something different within its narrative it is known as a conceptual clip an example is Alt J’s ‘Breezeblocks’. This music video contains both of these narratives, however it more strongly possesses a conceptual video, showing the importance of the narrative story rather than mainly the artist.

Performance Conceptual