Music Video Theories

Tear In My Heart

This is the official music video to the song Tear in my Heart by Twenty One Pilots, from their most recent album; Blurryface. his follows some of the well known theories and criticisms by media and music theorists.

Micheal Shore's theory that music videos use things such as recycled styles and adolescent fantasies can be somewhat true. The music video does overload you with information with the fast paced editing and theres quite a lot going on however i dont feel this is a criticism of the video as it's what makes the video interesting amongst other conventions. It also does show a guy following a girl which follows not just Shore's theory but also Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze, where we see things from the males perspective. However in this video this is not in a negative light whereas the woman is not shown in a mysogynistic or demeaning way but in a way where the singer is trying to be with her.

Steve Archer's theory that there has to be a strong, coherent link between performance and narrative applies stongly to this promo. The video is based off of the performance with the narrative linking into the performance coherently which makes it visually interesting to watch.

Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposition is true to this promo. the theory states that opposites are used throughout conventions of music poromos to generate interest and make it visually exciting. This is true for this promo with how the setting is bright and of a different ethnicity to band however they are dressed in black and some dark makeup which creates a contrast between them.

Not many other theories apply to this video as most alternative/indie videos do not follow the typical conventions of the music promo.