Andrew Goodwin sees music videos as not having

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Slide Notes

Andrew Goodwin sees music videos as not having traditional narrative styles. This is as the narrative approach in music videos are not the same in novels and films.

Published on Nov 18, 2015

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Andrew Goodwin sees music videos as not having traditional narrative styles. This is as the narrative approach in music videos are not the same in novels and films.

Reasons for the narrative structure are:

1. Pop videos are built around songs- all songs do not have the traditional structure of beginning, middle and end.

2. In the pop video the singer is bother the narrator and character.

Goodwin says pop videos rely on repetition. In pop videos there is a repetition on images particularly when a line is repeated or during the chorus. The use of repetition familiarises the audience with the genre and expect something in particular when listening to a song of that type. Furthermore through repetition, if the song is used in an advertisement for a film/ television show the tie in between the two forms of media makes the song familiar.

Pop songs still have a form of closure and ending. Although it may not necessarily end with a resolution a climax is built to demonstrate to the audience the narrative is moving forward.

There are three different types of relations between a song and its video:

ILLUSTRATION: This is where the video tells the story of the lyrics.

ED SHEERAN – A-TEAM

Photo by Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer

This song is a great example in demonstrating the illustration between the lyrics and the music video. The song ‘A- Team’ tells the story of a young female who is homeless and therefore results to doing things (drugs and sex) to ensure she makes end meets/ survives. The video is shot in a black and white effect demonstrating her life is unsatisfied as the two colours shows the world as having nothing exciting to look forward to.

When asked how ‘A- Team’ came about Ed Sheeran quoted “A drug like crack cocaine is called a ‘class A drug. That’s the same category as heroin. Instead of making it clear and just saying what the problem was, id would just say ‘she’s in the class A- Team.’” In the video the female is seen buying drugs- hence it relating to the lyrics.

Part of the song goes “or sales love to another man”, which means the female prostituting herself, when the lyric is sung the female is shown leading a man wearing a suit while dressed in lingerne. Furthermore the lyrics give a description of the female with the line “white lips, pale face”, when this is done close ups are used to emphasise the features to the audience and demonstrate to them that it is telling the story of her.

AMPLIFICATION: This is where the video introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning

JAY-Z, KANYE WEST & FRANK OCEAN – NO CHURCH IN THE WILD

Photo by mp3waxx.com

The constant mention of the sacred place ‘church’ in the lyrics suggest that the video would include some reference to the church (through the building of a church or someone dressed as an iconic figure from the bible) however the narrative in the video is of a riot between the police provoked by the people without authority in society.

The semantic field of religion in the song would assume that the video has a peaceful feel to it as religion is usually seen to promote social solidarity. However in the video people are shot wearing dark colours, people fighting and buildings being set alight. This goes against the connotations of the feature of nouns in the lyrics such as ‘priest’, ‘doctor’, and ‘religion’ and ‘church’ that are seen as sense of union.

DISJUNCTURE: This is where there is little connection between the lyrics and video, or where the video contradicts the lyrics.

SIA- CHANDELIER

Photo by Kris Krug

After reading the comments under the official video on YouTube and then searching the history of the singer, I found that the song is about her childhood were she dealt with parents that did not care much for her and struggled with alcoholism (which the artist ended up dealing with). Although this is not evident through the video, when looking at specific things the dancer does in the video and relating it back to the lyrics an indication of what the song truly is about rather than in literally being about swinging on chandeliers.

The dancing and facial expressions which are labelled by the public as ‘weird’ can be seen as her expressing how she truly feels in this unsafe environment. When then line “sun is up, I’m a mess” is sung the dancer is shown getting up of her seat and rubbing her stomach, with deep though it can be interpreted as her not being fed by her parents.

Furthermore when the artist sings the line “keep my glass full until morning light” the dancer uses the curtains to demonstrate herself keeping her head above water. Upon hearing this line for the first time it triggered me to think that the artist is talking about making sure she has enough to drink to last her the day. However, it truly conveys her desperation to make the next day alive.

The nude leotard can suggest she fades into the background when it comes to the relationship between people in her family. It can also suggest she has no identity, in which the lyrics demonstrate her finding her way.

Pop videos often have features that enable the audience to gain recognition. For example Michael Jackson’s yelps and twirls in his video. Sometimes in videos the sound of instruments are represented by different objects. Videos also try and appeal to a wide audience without alienating the core target audience. Lastly, videos that are songs featured on a particular film often incorporate clips from the movie in the video, one iconic one being Celine Dion- My Heart Will Go On from Titanic.

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