Andrew Goodwin's Other Theory.

Andrew Goodwin feels that we should rethink the structure of a music video as he feels that traditional narratives don't apply to pop videos. They approach narratives from a different perspective then novels and films. There are a number of reasons for this:

1. Pop videos are built arround sound - Don't pose traditional narrative structures

2. In pop videos the singer is both narrator and character

3. The singer oftens looks directly at the camera in order to extend their performance and involve the viewer

Pop videos seem to rely on repetition and they often repeat image. The repetition in parts of songs and there rhythms help to link the song with its genre, and have certain expectations. Pop videos have to have some closure, as do the songs lyrics. The end of the video is often reflected in the structure of the music.

Some videos are autonomous from the music they spring from. The visualisations of the song go beyond the original meaning. The visual aspects can provide pleasure - which encourages repeated viewing (promotes music), they could promote other commodities - Films. So it can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and Videos...

Relation Of Video to Song

Illustration

A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THIS

IS

LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE BY EMINEM AND RIHANNA

. THE VIDEO REFLECTS THE NARRATIVE OF THE LYRICS

Music Videos can convey the narrative with uses of imagery to help convey the meaning of lyrics and show genre.

Amplification

EMPIRE STATE OF MIND IS AN EXAMPLE OF AMPLIFICATION AS THE LYRICS 'NEW YORK' ARE AMPLIFIED BY THE IMAGERY OF NEW YORK IN THE BACKGROUND.

Similar to repetition. New meaning and effects of the lyrics are constantly shown through out the video

Disjunctive

ALEJANDRO IS A KEY EXAMPLE OF A DISJUNCTIVE VIDEO AS THERE IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LYRICS AND VISUALS

The meaning of the song is ignored. There is little connect between the lyrics and video.

Pop videos often have easily recognisable features. This involves the objectification of women to make them desirable to male members of the audience, this is very common in Hip-Hop / Rap videos. This is one example of how pop videos try to broaden there target audience. Being as "pop", is an abbreviation of "popular", this reflects the main objective of these videos, to become popular and publicly liked. By objectifying women within the video, a song that may be more popular with females, now has a video that also appeals to males.

Andrew Goodwin.

DigiPak Research

Planning: Gaining permission

The Song I have choosen to create a video for is:

Tokyo Police Club: Favourite Colour

This song belongs to the genre that I want to work within. It is a perfect example of an Indie song. It is not done by an overly large band such as oasis, and does not have a video already created.
Some connotations that this song brings across are:
Alcohol
Fags
Hooligans
Britain

Due to these connotations, I plan on including a young cast of band members, age ranging from 18-25. The fashion sense will be that of an indie band, they will not be dressed in expensive clothes or involved in glamorous locations.

Indie Music video Research.

After conducting research into music videos as a whole, I have decided to conduct research into my chosen genre.

Oasis: Wonderwall


This is a performance video by oasis, but at the same time is quite disjunctive. Whilst we see that editing is in time with music, and the band are performing as they should, often we see completely unrelated clips of circus performers. The video is intriguing as it is a song about a loved one, and yet we never see who they are, or get any idea of characterisation. I feel that this is an effective way to create curiosity within those who truly listen to the song whilst watching the video, and may be a valuable technique to adopt for myself.

Andrew Goodwin argued that a relationship between the music and visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying, or contradicting the music, is a key convention within music videos. Although these features are held by the fact its a performance video, it is also interesting to note that the images and clips of circus performers are completely unrelated to the song or the representations held within the lyrics.

Bombay Bicyle Club: Evening / Morning



This Video Begins by being very disjunctive. However, it turns into more and more into a performance video as it plays through. The use of the panda suit in this video is interesting as it creates an interesting / unusual vibe that I am very interested in using within my video. By using an unrelated costume / character, a disjunctive essence is created whilst still being able to have a narrative or performance video.
Andrew Goodwin stated that multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist is an extremely important aspect of a music video, and this is clearly evident in this video as the main vocalist is the central protagonist being chased. We also see that "Genre related style and iconography is present" (Goodwin). This is evidenced through the fashion of the characters. Not only this but the actual shot types used for the performance elements of the video are very common within the indie genre. For example, long shots are used so that the whole band can be included, representing that they are united. Also, close ups are used of each member of the band so that the other members are not forgotten behind the centralisation of the main vocalist.

Ok Go : This Too Shall Pass



This video took an extremely large amount of time to plan. The whole video occurs within one take which is very unusual to see within a music video, let alone an Indie video. Indie videos seem to be disjunctive, and whilst this video follows the trend, it does not include the fast paced editing often seen within music videos. This video is far too difficult to replicate within my own production, but elements may be able to be used, such as the used of editing. For example, with my video, I may use far less cuts then I previously anticipated to give a flowing, continuous production.

It is difficult to take any kind of representations of social groups from this video, as it does not include any characters except the band. However, even the band are dressed from head to toe in plain white outfits, so any kind of genre based fashion is removed. Also, without the lyrics being sang by one artist in particular, this denies us the opportunity to be able to use Goodwin's theory of multiple close ups of the main artist or vocalist. The only kind of representation present within the video is the individualism of each member of the band. The way this is shown is through the use of colour at the very end as each member is covered in a different colour of paint.

From the research I have conducted, I have found many useful elements that I may include within my video. Often we see that Indie videos are disjunctive, with an element of performance. Also the use of editing can be seen to be different to that used for other genres, often including fast paced editing of unrelated images to create a confused, messy result. Whilst this wasn't seen in Ok Go's Video, the use of only 1 shot made it even more entropic then quick cuts.

General Music Video Research