The stories involved in music can be amazing and fun. I use music and music videos to come up with some of my stories because some of the messages in songs can work very well into a story. Music videos are a bigger way that stories are used. It's amazing how some of the stories can work so well with the lyrics and the song. These stories can be told through the visuals of the music video or within the lyrics themselves. The best stories within music videos to me are the ones that a subtle. Subtle stories help the audience analyze and interact with the story.
Sometimes I use music to help me come up with ideas. Sometimes it'll be easy for me to listen to a song and come up with an idea but sometimes it'll be a lot harder. The songs with more subtle stories have to be broken apart and analyzed and once I'm able to pull apart the themes and come up with theories about the story I'm more likely to take inspiration from these stories. If the writer likes the full story that is shown in the music then the writer needs to find a way to make it their own and add their style to it.
Using Alligator by Monsta x and Gunshot by Kard as examples. With Alligator the story in the music video is a lot more subtle. I got inspiration from the mise en scene in the music video. I got the image references from Monsta X music video of Alligator.
I mainly got inspiration from shots like these. I thought "Why are they trapped in these rooms?" and "Who are these characters in the story?" Questioning the story represented in these music videos and trying to connect the dots helps me build my own story based on what I think would happen. Another thing I sometimes do is to take inspiration from small things from the story, locations, themes, etc. From this music video, I was able to create my own ideas around the inspirations that the music video gave me.
When it comes the Gunshot the themes and meaning of the song are pretty obvious by reading the lyrics and what it shows in the music video. With my inspiration from this song I looked through the lyrics of the song and wrote down the lyrics that inspired me in making an idea and ones that fit the themes that I wanted for my idea. This can help me get an idea of the types of scenes I could do and what could be in them. These lyrics I was able to get from Genius and their translated lyrics.
Some examples of the lyrics I picked out where: "LOVE, those damn 4 letters", (Genius - 2020)
"I will never be enough Even if I pour out my all" (Genius - 2020)
"Your words are like a gunshot. I'm bleeding love (Genius - 2020)
With all these lyrics I'm able to pick up a theme within them all and piece together what the song is about. I was able to see that the song was about how words can hurt someone online even if someone doesn't think they do and it talks about the dark side of having an online presence
The amazing thing about music videos and music is that the stories are pretty short and compact. Some music stories can be so creative for how short they are. The greatest stories used in this format are the ones that use mise en scene and incorporate the story of the music into the music video. Some music videos like Take On Me are like short films and some incorporate the story within the performance elements of the music video.
In conclusion, music is such a good way to get inspiration if you are struggling for ideas. Music videos can have so much creative storytelling to them and with the short time that they have to tell the story. Having a match between the story in the song and what is going on in the music video is one of the best things.