Andrew Goodwin: The Structure of Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin: The Structure of Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin was a Director of Music for 37 years, he wrote in his book ‘Dancing In The Distraction Factory’ that pop music videos challenge the traditional narrative style, approaching the narrative from a completely different angle to films. There are 3 main reasons why the structures of pop videos are different. Pop videos are built specifically for songs which is why they don’t always have the traditional structure of normality-problem-resolution. The singer is used as both the narrator as well as a character at times. The videos are an artist’s performance for their audience; they would look directly into the camera often in order to reach out to their audience and make them feel more involved. This intimacy between the artist and their audience also promotes the artist.

Repetitions

One of the most integral parts of all pop music videos is the use of repetitions; they use the repetitions of choruses and images that certain lyrics become parallel with because we see and hear them consistently throughout the music video. Pop videos become very familiar and at times, annoying, due to their repetition. The public become very familiar (not always by choice!) with the songs because they become unavoidable through the continuous showing and playing of the songs on radio stations and television channels dedicated to music. Unlike films, pop songs do not have a closure or ending because they will be repetitively shown or played; this is why pop songs usually build to a climax (bridge) after following the verse-chorus structure. Finally, the repetitions of certain word, phrases and rhythms from other pop videos (intertextuality) means the audience become familiar with the genre and develop certain expectations.

Types of videos

There are 3 types of relations between a song and its music video.  The first is known as illustration, where the video tells the story of the lyrics. Dance is often used to express the feelings and moods of the song. ‘Her Morning Elegance’ by Oren Lavie is an example of illustration music video. 0:31 of the song features a strings section, and in the music video this is represented by the cello moving in stop motion for the entire length of the strings section. Other elements of this video which link to the visuals are the lyrics, at 01:05 the lyrics mention the fictional girl going on the train, and at this point in the video the actress is portrayed in different colour bed sheets taking the form of a moving train. 

Amplification music videos give a depth to the song and video by adding layers of meaning.  One example of this is Stan by Eminem. This video is a combination of the artist’s performance as well as a story.

There are many things that link the video content and the lyrics; as it starts off, there is a couple who are arguing. The main character seems to look like the artist himself-Eminem; this is a feature that is often used in music videos that tell stories in order to make the narrative more believable and easier to relate to for the audience because they would be familiar with the artist.   

Disjuncture music videos contain little connection between the lyrics and the video. This is common in dance videos. The Madonna video 4 Minutes is an appropriate example of this.  

All pop videos have some common and easily recognizable features. Michael Jackson used to give a yelp and/or twirl in most of his videos. Another typical feature is the way women are presented as objects of male desire; this is emphasised in hip hop and RnB music videos as the artists in those genres are portrayed to be living glamorous lives.

There are some videos where different instruments in the music are represented by different objects. Rock The Casbah by The Clash is an example where every time the piano plays an armadillo is shown trundling along.

Music videos also try to appeal to as broad an audience as possible without distancing itself from it’s main target audience. Often, videos which feature older bands or artists show them in their younger days; this enables the older audience (who were young or are a similar age to the artist) to still be able to identify with them.

Finally, videos that are of songs written specifically for a movie usually implement images from that movie in the video. Examples of this are Lose Yourself by Eminem for 8 Mile and My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion for Titanic.