Research: Andrew Goodwin and Video Categories

Andrew Goodwin presented his views on the structure of music videos. He strongly feels how different a pop video's narrative is compared to any other film or story being read or seen, just because they approach the subject in a different manner. Of course the reason for this is obvious when some thought is put behind, some include the fact the videos are based around songs, and songs sometimes are not stories at all. Another reason is the way the singer is portrayed, it may be that it is being the narrator as well as the character and this involves a direct look and approach of the singer, instead of the audience feeling like a 3rd party just looking into the characters life.

Importantly, Goodwin focuses on the visualisation of a song, meaning the video. He developed a form of being able to categorize videos according to the their relation to the lyrics. The video can provide just the simple pleasure of watching, or to promote a second party. The three categories available for placing are Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture. Illustration means the video relates and collaborates to the words and therefor together they create an effective story. Amplification means the video also collaborates but adds in more information and meaning that the song does not talk about. Disjuncture means the video has little or no connection to the song or even where the video serves to oppose the song.

Pop videos or music videos in general usually have similar features which serve to identify the particular culture or genre of the music. A very popular one featured especially in RnB and Hip Hop is the female object specification, however women in these videos don't seem to concern of this male desire as a negative. Videos may also tend to try and use stills or characters from films or any other sort of advertising they do, this creates repetition in audience viewing because people are more attracted to things they already know.

Examples of the categories

COCOROSIE - LEMONADE
Illustration: They sing about their parents and themselves as children, the video portrays two old women which are meant to be themselves looking back over their years. Certain shots even contain them as young children singing and the lyrics are of a young childs memory. Some lyrics, for example 'By lightening strikes Instead there was hot, pink Flashes in the sky' are reinacted in the video at 2.20 minutes.

PINK FLOYD - HIGH HOPES
Amplification: Is shown in this video because it is literally amplified, the images in the video exagerate everything the words actually say. An example is 'Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground', the video then goes on to show men on stilts, which represented the narrator explaining how he wouldnt be tied down and rise above it. Although it adds more meaning, it leaves less for the imagination but exagerates the story much more which is a point of entertainment or this case definement of the band itself and its difference.



KISS - HIDE YOUR HEART
Disjuncture: I consider this almost pop metal video to be an example of disjuncture because of its misguiding video meaning. The title and the lyrics talk about love and being scared of it, but the actual meaning that the video portrays is about gang violence in the cities and how it might be betrayel of love for fellow crime gang members.