Diegetic and non-diegetic sound in music videos

Diegetic sound is just another tool to help tell a story, although how it is used can vary. Shifting from diegetic to non-diegetic or vice versa is a method that helps draw the audience in. You engage the audience and subtly involve them in the narrative by changing the role of music in the video. For example, Florence and the Machine's song, "What kind of man" starts with multiple scenes of a man and woman. In these scenes there is general conversation and laughing to be heard between the two characters. This helps to set a scene for the music video, showing a romance between the two characters all the while setting a relaxed and happy atmosphere for the video. 


After these scenes, however, there is a scene featured in which the two characters are involved in a car crash. This scene manages to diminish the enjoyable atmosphere that was previously set in the video, creating a narrative of sadness and despair alongside the happy and jovial atmosphere.

Once these scenes have finished, the music video fades out and the dance routine based part of the video begins, along with the non-diegetic sound of the musical piece. The diegetic sounds at the beginning of the video were used to help establish a narrative to follow and raise some questions that are then going to be answered through the non-diegetic sound of the music.