Roland Barthes' Music Video Theory

Roland Barthes believes that texts can be open or closed. He then narrowed down the action of text into 5 different codes, which can be incorporated into any narrative, including music narrative videos.

These 5 codes are:

·         The Hermeneutic Code (HER)

·         The Enigma/Proairetic Code (ACT)

·         The Symbolic Code (SYM)

·         The Cultural Code (REF)

·         The Semantic Code (SEM)

The Hermeneutic Code (HER)

This is described by Barthes as the voice of truth. HER, is the way the story avoids telling the truth or letting any facts slip. This is often used to drop clues into the video to help further make the idea of mystery more prominent, which would make music videos more engaging for an audience.

The Enigma/Proairetic Code (ACT)

This is considered by Barthes as the empirical voice. This is mainly used to give the audience a cliff hanger, which builds up tension and leaves the audience guessing what happens next.

The Semantic Code (SEM)

This is considered by Barthes as the voice of the person. This points out sections in the lyrics that suggests a particular meaning by a connotation which the story suggests. The connotation is what is symbolised.

The Symbolic Code (SYM)

This is considered to be the voice of symbols. This code does draw similarities to the Semantic Code, however, it does act on a much wider level as it organises semantic meaning into a broader and deeper set of meaning. This is often done in the use of contrast, where new meanings arise out of the opposing and conflicting idea.

The Cultural Code (REF)

This is said to be the voice of science. This code looks at the audience’s wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology. This then ensures the video relates to the audience and makes the video more realistic.