Narrative Theory: Roland Bathes

The theory of 'Breaking the Codes' by Roland Bathes can directly relate to music video narrative as he has narrowed down every storyline to 5 simple codes:

• Action (or Proairetic)This refers to an event in a storyline that has a series of logical consequences.
  For example, a cowboy drawing a gun is an action code suggesting the probability of violence.
  The code is intended to assist the audience to see where the narrative is going therefore building up tension and encouraging them to continue watching.
• Enigma (or Hermeneutic)This refers to a narrative which avoids telling the entire truth, or revealing all the facts behind the story in order to create mystery.
  This mystery is not always solved. If the enigma is at the beginning of a narrative (for example, a murder occuring) this will encourage the audience to continue watching to discover why that situation happened and to try to understand the storyline.
• SemanticThis refers to the connotations that the narrative may suggest.
  For example, an establishing shot of the Statue of Liberty tells the audience immediately that the narrative is beginning in New York.
• Symbolic
  This is the binary oppositions or themes within a narrative.
  Bathes' own description for this code was: "lays the groundwork for a symbol structure"
  For example, the underlaying meaning within a storyline.
• Cultural
  The assumed knowledge that is brought to the narrative.
  For example, Marron 5's song 'Moves like Jagger' has the cultural code of Mick Jagger, therefore if you do not know who Mick Jagger is, then you would not be able to fully appreicate the narrative and in some cases, not understand it at all.