Research for Music Video : Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin is a music director and he believed that all pop videos had a different structure rather than a traditional narrative analysis. Andrew Goodwin said that pop videos approach a different angle to novels and films and the reasons for the different narrative style are: 

• Pop videos are built around songs
• The pop video uses the singer both as a narrator and as a character
• The singer often looks directly at the camera

Pop videos rely on repetition, videos often repeat images and/or parts of the song. The visualization of a song may go beyond the original meaning. Some videos may add meaning to the song, some may have nothing to do with the song and some may be used as a tool for advertising. Therefore it can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and videos:

• Illustration - This where music videos use certain shots/images that explain the meaning of lyrics of a song.

• Amplification - This is when the images and camera shots are manipulated and shown repeatedly throughout the music video and is drummed into our vision.

• Disjuncture - This is where the video pays no attention and doesn't link with the lyrics.

Illustration:

'Coldplay' sings about going back to the start and in the video you can simply see that he is travelling in reverse.

Amplification:

This video has a strong sense of emotional breakdown as a kid as the video portrays professor greens childhood.

Disjuncture:


In this video the meaning of the lyrics are completely ignored.