Goodwin Hunting

Andrew Goodwin wrote about the structure of music videos and in particular the narrative. He found that music videos don't follow traditional narrative structures mainly due to the fact that they are based around songs which also don't follow a traditional narrative structure (usually). Another reason for the different narrative structure is that the singer is often used as a narrator and a character who also looks and sings directly at the camera. This makes the video feel more like a performance than a story.

Goodwin also found that pop videos rely on repetition and often repeat images the same way a song repeats lines or choruses (hence base tracks). This repetition has lead to certain expectations held by the audience based on the genre of music video that they are watching.

Goodwin's main finding however was his theory that there are three types of music video:

Illustration:
Where the video tells the story of the lyrics.

'The mirrors image tells me it's home time'

'It's 3 in the morning and I'm trying to change
 your mind, left you multiple missed calls...'

A recent example of this in a music video is in the most recent video by the British indie rock band Arctic Monkeys with their song 'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?'. While this video isn't a typical music video, the lyrics are clearly illustrated as the lead singer of the band is filmed leaving a club clearly 'high' and leaving 'multiple missed calls' to a girl who ignores his messages.

As the lyrics state, the girl is unimpressed with the messages and Alex is still just high.

Amplification:
Where the video introduces new meanings that add layers of meaning to the lyrics without contradicting them.

Ush and Kells sit down for their nightly chat
'Yo Ush' 'What up Kells?'

Ush and Kells come up with a plan to catch her
in the act during their weekly basketball game.

This ridiculous R&B music video of the duet 'Same Girl' by Usher and R Kelly seems at first to be a perfect example of illustration as the lyrics are illustrated in the video. However it is revealed in the genius twist at the end that 'Ush' and 'Kells' brilliant plan failed when the girl they thought they were both seeing was actually an identical twin. This adds an additional layer of meaning to the lyrics that the two for the whole song are in fact talking about twins/clones rather than the same girl as they both thought. As is typical in music videos, the narrative doesn't really have an ending and there is no explanation from Ush and Kells as to why the identical twins both drive the same car, have the same license plate, tattoo and live on the same street. But hey that's the fun of music videos.

Ush and Kells are horrified to discover their plan has failed and they are in fact dating twins
who live the exact same lifestyle. They stand against a wall in matching leather jackets and
sunglasses and think about the adventure they've been on and what they've learnt.

Disjuncture:
Where there is little connection between the lyrics and video or the video contradicts the lyrics.

The only part of the video with any connection
to the lyrics

Cute dog

In this British pop song 'La La La' by Naughty Boy, the video does feature a small connection with the lyrics (the covering ears and saying la la la). However largely the lyrics are not related to the video as they have no mention of the apparent Wizard of Oz theme and seem to be more more about the end of a relationship. Despite the lack of connection it is a good music video which does seem to fit the song, showing that disjuncture can be very effective.

An effective but seemingly pretty weird ending to a pop video

Pop videos have recognisable features such as a recurring artist trait like Michael Jackson or the continuing tradition of women being presented as objects of male desire, but we'll leave the more in depth analysis of that to Mulvey.

Goodwin also specialised in stating the obvious when he found that songs written as soundtracks for a movie often incorporated scenes from the movie into the video. These videos often have more of a traditional narrative structure than usual pop videos as they are often following the story of a film which does have a traditional narrative structure. For example, My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion soundtracks the film 'Titanic' and the video starts with scenes of Jack and Rose getting onto the boat, shows the boat hitting the ice berg at the key change in the song and ends with the boat sinking into the ocean.