Andrew Goodwin theory of music

Andrew Goodwin (1993) the most prominent theorist of music videos, argues that traditional narrative analysis do not really apply to rap or pop music videos, videos such as drake and rihanna “take care “do not really tell a story in their music video, but are just there to entertain us with the use of bizarre colours as well as repeating the main chorus of the song making memorable to the audience. Goodwin argues the main reasons why pop music videos are trying to “avante garde” is because they are trying to approach a narrative structure from a different point of view unlike the films of today. There are three main reasons why there are different narrative structures they are as follows;

1.     1. Pop music videos are built around songs; as a result they do not pose a narrative structure. The music videos that were successful at doing this really had big budgets such as Michael Jackson” thriller”.

2.    2.   Pop music videos use the singer for more that one reason, so they can not only sing the song but also be the narrator (tell the story to the audience) and also be a character within the video itself.

3.   3.  The singer often looks at the camera trying to suck us in making us fell as if the singer is singing directly to us, it grabs the audience’s attention, very persuasive indeed

Allot of pop videos tend to repeat images videos like rihanna “we found love” they repeat places that are seen by them as being hopeless such as the repetition of a dingy degraded bathroom or a derelict street.

When songs tend to repeat scenes or even the beats, we as the audience become more familiar with the type of genre that the artist sings for whether it rap or rock etc. The song could be repeated in many ways as we are so developed in a post modern society the use of technology for music videos has advance we could hear it on the radio, or the intent even on TV making it even more memorable towards the audience.

Music videos tend to be autonomous as in you have the power to do your own things such as lady gaga has the power because of her fame and status, she could on stage swing on a rope and sing at the same time , the visualisation of the song may go beyond the original meaning. If we look at music videos such as Linkin park that provide us with a visual pleasure, in a way it promotes itself in more memorable way. Music could be used as a tool to help advertise other commodities such as films; we've seen Linkin Park do it for the transformers trilogy

Linkin park -new divide

Goodwin argues that there are three different relations between songs and videos such as

Illustration

This is when the video tells the story of the lyrics; dance is often used to express feelings and moods towards the audience. An example of this will be

Mac Miller - America (Ft. Casey Veggies) 

This song is definitely an illustration because when he is rapping we can see him acting it out as well as showing the american flag and background.

Amplification

This is when the video has a new meaning that does not conflict with the lyrics but adds a new layer of meaning towards the music video

Linkin Park - Crawling

This is slightly a difficult one as the song is about how people hide their tortures but the lyrics expresses it in a deeper way it goes into to depth.

Disjuncture

This is when there is a little connection between the lyrics and music video, in other words the lyrics contradict what the video is telling us as a narrator.

Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror (Original Clip)

This is a disjuncture as the lyrics (song) is about self- realisation but the video is showing world events and people that have died for the good.