Andrew Goodwin's Theory on Music Videos

In this post I will talk about Andrew Goodwin’s theories on music videos. They are as followed:

Pop videos aren’t structured in the traditional narrative way, they approach narrative in a different way to novels/films. This is because:

-        The videos are built around songs, and most songs don’t have traditional narrative structures; the videos have to reflect the songs

-          Most of the time, pop videos use the singer as the narrator and character of the video; this is not a characteristic of a traditional narrative

-         The singer often looks directly into the camera as an extention of the performance, and to involve the viewer; this is also not a characteristic of a traditional narrative

There is a large amount of repetition in most pop videos; this reflects the repetition in songs. Also, repetitiveness tends to make things quite memorable and familiar to the viewer, and videos have to be memorable and become familiar in order for them to be successful at promoting the song.

Pop videos have a strong form of closure and ending; this is because pop songs do. The ending of a music video reflects the way a song ends. The song often builds up to a climax before fading away, so the videos are often structured in the same way.

There are 3 types of music video:

-         Illustration: The video tells the story of the song, and is directly related to it. An example of this is This is War by 30 Seconds To Mars:

 

This video almost perfectly illustrates the lyrics of the song. The line, 'To the soldier' is paired with a photo of soldiers at war, and 'The civillian' is paired with a photo of civillians in a crowd. The line, 'It's the moment of truth' is accompanied by a photo of John F Kennedy, and 'The moment to lie' is accompanied by a photo of George Bush. This kind of illustration continues throughout the video. Also, the song is about war and the video depicts a scene of war.

-         Amplification: New meanings are introduced that may not necessarily have been thought about if the song was listened to without a visual accompaniment. Amplification could be seen as an exaggeration of the song. An example of this is Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen:

This video does not really narrate the lyrics of the song, however, it is directly related to the song. Parts of it zoom in on fictional romance novels and then cut to scenes where Carly Rae Jepsen is the female character of the book, and her love interest in the video is the male character of the book. The song is about Carly giving her number to a random stranger, and in the video the male love interest gives his number to a random stranger. However, the twist is that the random stranger is not Carly Rae Jepsen, it is her male guitar player. This is a good example of amplification.

-         Disjuncture: There is little or no connection between the video and the song, or the video contradicts the song. An example of this is CrushCrushCrush by Paramore:

The lyrics of this song are about being attracted to a friend, and wanting to be more than friends with them. However, the video features a band performance scene and some very random elements. For example, the setting is quite random: a desert. They perform in the desert, but what makes it more random is that they seemingly tried to create a house in the desert without walls, a floors or a ceiling, but there was a door, a windowframe with curtains, and furniture such a bathtub, a bed, a dining table with chairs, and chandeliers. There are also close-ups of other random props throughout the video, such as a bike, and a birdcage. There are also a few random people wearing random clothes, for example, a man wearing orange overalls and goggles. These people start smashing the instruments towards the end of the song. None of these things relate at all to the song and seem to be completely random, and this makes the video a very strong example of disjuncture.

Most pop videos have easily recognisable features. For example, the way women are presented as objects of male desire. Dancing is another easily recognisable feature of pop videos.

Pop videos try to appeal to a wide audience at the same time as keeping their original fans.

Most videos for songs on film soundtracks connect to the film. Clips from the film tend to feature in the music video as well as performance scenes from the artist, thus promoting both the film and the artist (cross media convergence).