Thoeries- Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin's thoery is that every music video follows one of three different techniques whilst making their music video. These three techniques are illustration, amplification and disjuncture.

Illustration is when the music video is meaningful and follows what the lyrics in the song are saying; meaning if in the video there are shots of a couple breaking up the lyrics will be saying about the break up. This would help make the music video successful because the viewer can see what is happening but also helps them to understand what the lyrics would have been referring to so they can undersrtand the meaning. This means the images should help to create a literal meaning or feeling of the lyrics often just showing the musician in the video. The look of the musician in the video would be what is expected depending what the genre is or what the song is about. For example, in a pop music video you expect to see them dressed in casual clothing to match the genre they are from. However, if the musician in the video was to wear something like a full leather piece of clothing with lots of make up and piercings for a pop video they would be showing more disjunction as it no longer makes sense with what they are wearing and doing corresponding with the genre.

Another technique used is amplification. This is where the images amplify the lyrics and a specific narrative is being used which may not be clear to what the lyrics are trying to put across, or if you was to read the lyrics alone you would not be able to fully understand what the song is trying to represent unless you saw the music video and saw clearly what they was hinting at. In this sort of  music video the band would take on the role of fictional people in the narrative showing the story through the music vodeo.

The final technique is disjunction. Disjunction is when the images do not at all relate to the lyrics that are being used; this is only done really by bands/musicians that are well established and can afford to take the risk of doing so because they already have a solid fanbase. For example, the song Da Funk by Daft Punk consists of a person dressed up as a dog walking round with a radio playing music out loud. There aren't lyrics used in the song much as well so seeing a person dressed as a dog strolling around pretending to be part of society which would not make sense to someone if they randomly saw the video. If there is not a strongly built fanbase it may come across as a bad music video as there is not link between the video and lyrics which could confuse a viewer as they do not understand what the song is about or what message they are trying to put across with the music video.