The Whole Story : The Role of Narrative in the Work of Kate Bush

Abstract

Narrative has played a key role in the aesthetic of Kate Bush’s work throughout her career. She has repeatedly demonstrated a strong presence of narrative within her songs through her use of stories and characters, often telling existing stories from a different character perspective. While Bush’s storytelling in her songs may be the most apparent use of narrative, it is also present through her music videos and through the context in which her work exists and changes over time. However, not a great deal of academic research has been undertaken on Bush’s work, or on the subject of narrative and popular music. I aim to address this lack of research by using the work of Kate Bush to explore the various roles that narrative plays within popular music. Based upon a foundation of narratology, my research concentrates on four key components: story, character, video, and time, which are used to investigate how narrative presents itself within Bush’s work. I take a predominantly chronological journey through her music and videos, beginning with an examination of how she uses the pre-existing stories of others as the basis for her early songs, and how she positions characters and narrators within her work. The focus moves further outside of the songs as Bush’s career progresses, with the passage of time becoming a prominent feature. While narrative initially appears as stories and characters within her songs, the passage of time allows it to take on other forms. For example, I explore how, in her later career, Bush adds a new layer of narrative to her songs by returning to her earlier use of preexisting stories, yet this time revisiting and adapting the work of her younger self rather than that of others, and inadvertently revealing the story of her own career.