Adrianna A2 Media blog: Goodwin Narrative Thoery

Andrew Goodwin believed that the narrative within a music video could be split into three categories:

1. Illustration

When the video tells the story of the lyrics. This music video tells a narrative, like a short story within the song. Sometimes this means that the lyrics match up exactly with the actions of the music video.

For instance in Vance Joy's Riptide from his first debut album Dream Your Life Away, rather than create a narrative within the music video, they literally show the images of exactly the lyrics that they are singing at that moment.

"Riptide"

They illustrate the lyrics exactly.

"I was scared of dentists and the dark"

"Running down to the Riptide"

"I love you when you're singing that song"

2. Amplification

The images amplify the lyrics as a narrative may be used to convey a deeper meaning that would not be picked up on the lyrics alone. This has more of an allowance for a performance or lots of dancers.

For example, the music video for Katy Perry’s California Girls from her PRISM album, there was an exaggerated, sweet, "Candy land" theme, that uses bright colors, dances and big sets to create a stereotypical feminine utopia, using a lot of pink, or "girly" imagery. The music video amplifies the girly, feminine, over saturated pop theme.

While the original song is just about how "California girls" are, but the music video plays on some of the language used in the lyrics, that otherwise the people listening wouldn't have picked up on, for instance she talks about being "so hot, we'll melt your popsicle".

3. Disjuncture

When the video has nothing to do with the lyrics at all. The video is a completely separate concept, that has no meaning towards the song

The music video for Calvin Harris' song "Im not alone" follows no narrative at all, and doesn't seem to hold any specific sort of meaning, there are two minor stories being told, a boy in the woods and a man in a cave with women in cages, who are also his backup dancers, however, the song bears no themes or indications towards either of those topics.