Some music videos follow a narrative, intended to link the lyrics and visuals to tell a story. This needs to be easy to follow as the only sound it contains, are the song, so this is why the lyrics must match. If a music video is pure narrative then it won't contain any lip syncing at all, as it tryies to create a sense of realism. However, the most common type of narrative is performance narrative which includes some sort of performance, but also tries to tell a narrative. The music video often tries to include a meaningful story.
For example, Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal tells the story of a 1930's gangster. The video was directed by Colin Chilvers who had previously directed films such as 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' and 'Superman'. This is where he got his inspiration from, and why the music video is so narrative based.
The Weeknd also creates many narrative music videos. However, his are different as they all link together, following one big narrative. His videos tell the story of someone who has sold his soul to the devil (his fame). All of his videos follow the narrative, and although he hasn't confirmed this fan theory himself, he continues to play with this idea.
The narrative starts with 'The Hills' which starts of the video with a car crash showing The Weeknd and two women in the crash. As he starts walking away from the car the two women start pushing and blaming him, but he seems completely unfazed and continues to walk away. The rest of the video shows him walking to this unknown destination, until near the end. He enters a large house, and walks up the stairs to a red room. We then see a POV shot of a man on a sofa with the two women from the car with him. The man is holding and apple, which refers to the story of genesis in the Bible, where the snake gets Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. This suggests that this man in the red room is the devil, and he has been expecting The Weeknd to show up.
The next video in the narrative is 'Can't feel my face'. This video starts of with The Weeknd standing on stage singing in a club in front of an audience. At the beginning of the video most people seem disinterested in the Weeknd's music and don't interact with it. He then continues to sing and the 'devil' from the previous video appears and sits at the front. He watches The Weeknd as he continues to sing and get a drink thrown on him. As the devil continues to watch, he sees the audiences disinterest. This is the part where the Weekend starts to give in to the fame./To show the Weeknd how good fame is, he throws his lighter and sets him on fire. The audience take interest and get up and start dancing as the Weeknd continues to sing and dance while on fire. Although he is burning, he has gained the fame and power form the devil. However, as he continues to dance, he becomes too deep into his dealings with the devil, and continues in this path.
After 'Can't feel my face' we get 'Often' which is an NSFW music video, showing the Weeknd's fame in action. After the devil helped him to succeed and become famous, IN this video, the devil can be seen bringing the Weeknd Champagne and glasses. This shows that he is continuing to feed The Weeknd and give him false ideas of how good the fame is. He continues to create the illusion that everything is great and although the devil is helping him, he is actually making The Weeknd's life better.
The next video is 'Tell your friends' This video starts of with a burning bush, another Biblical reference. In the biblical story this is where God told Moses to lead the Israelite's out of Bethlehem to save them. This is where we believe that the Weeknd has been told to do the right thing, as he goes to bury someone. This someone is believed to be his old self, the one consumed by fame, who sold his soul to the devil. As he finishes burying himself, we see the devil walking towards him. He they both start walking together and as they come close, the Weeknd shoots the devil. He tries to put a stop to his old self. As the song starts top end, the music changes and we see what is asumed to be the devils Bentley. This creates a link between music and visuals as Andrew Goodwin said, as the music gets faster in pace, and we see the Weeknd decide to become the devil, as he gets in the car and drives away.
The next video is 'In the night' which adds to the illusion the The Weeknd is now the devil. The Weeknd has now been completely overrun by fame, as we see him being bombarded by paparazzi, girls and money. He is being hunted by other people who want this fame from him, but he is being protected by multiple women. However, two off the women who protect him are from the previous videos, they are the women who used to serve the devil. This continues to create the illusion that The Weeknd is now the devil as hye now has power over these women.
After this we have 'Starboy' which is the first video from his new project. This video continues the story as he tries to get rid of the devil inside of him. At the beginning of the video we see him killing himself by placing plastic over his face and suffocating him. His new hair is also an icon for his new self. He has changed and he wants to leave all of his fame behind him, as this is what made him be consumed by the devil. To do this he starts smashing up all of his trophies and awards won by his career with a massive cross, a symbol of Christianity. This is a metaphor, to show that he wants to leave his fame and fortune behind him, but he can't quite let go as we see him driving away in a sports car at the end of the video.
After this, we have 'False alarm' which follows The Weeknd in a first person view of a bank heist. The video is after he has given up his fame and fortune, so he turns to theft. he robs a bank, but his conscience got in his way, as he ended up with no money at the end. Throughout the video we see many people dying and we see a hostage which although she is used as bait at one point, The Weeknd doesn't actually want her dead. We see this because at the end of the video The Weeknd and the hostage are the only ones left. He gives her the key to the handcuffs and she takes the money and leaves. He has the opportunity to shoot at her but he doesn't as he still has a conscience. We then see that it is The Weeknd as he looks in the mirror to his right, just before he shoots himself.
The next video is 'Party Monster' where The Weeknd has died and gone to hell (literally). After he shot himself in the previous video, he has now gone to hell and is starting to try and have fun. However, he still has his conscience, and he keeps trying to hang on to it, as we see the red crosses appearing throughout the video. He is also seen with multiple women and is seen driving around in a sports car. He is now trying to embrace what he has became, but is still struggling. However, because he is the devil, hell is not a bad place for him, the only bad thing for him is his mind.
This satanic view also connects with his cover art for the physical copy of Starboy. The Weeknd uses cross media convergence to help further prove this theory, as his physical copy displays three rows of six symbols, which is the devils number 666. Also the star on the vinyl refers to Lucifer (the devil) as Lucifer means morning star in Latin, as the devil was supposed to have fallen from the sky like a falling star. This is another reason why he calls himself starboy.
The whole of The Weeknd's story is a metaphor to show the audience how fame is the devils work, and how it has taken over his life (not for the better). He tries top tell the audience that there is more important thing, and when you start top do wrong, eventually it takes over and consumes you (as he eventually became the devil).
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