ANDREW GOODWIN’S THEORY Of music videos

There’s three things..

• He states that there are three ways in which a music video can connect to the music, which are:

• Illustration• Amplification• Disjuncture

Illustration • Illustration is simply, a literal meaning to the song, visually.• Last Friday Night by Katy Perry is a good example, the

song depicts a party (on a Friday, such is the title)• Some of the lyrics portray young people dancing on

tables: yeah we danced on tabletops• And drinking too much: “yeah

we took too many shots”

Amplification

• Amplification can be seen to be the enhancement of a concept video. It can be as artistic as the director desires but will still convey the meaning of the lyrics through the video.

• In Miley Cyrus’ video for Wrecking Ball in which the song describes a harsh break up and her “coming in like a wrecking ball” into her partners life. She is shown to be extremely sad, crying, and then physically on a wrecking ball herself.

Disjuncture• Completely ignores the lyrical content of the song and

tries to almost create new meanings to it.• Red Hot Chili Peppers’ video for Can’t Stop is a good

example of a disjunctured video, nothing quite adds up.