Goodwin’s Narrative Theory:

 

Andrew Goodwin had a theory that music video narrative could be broken up into three different ways, because the songs are made before the video is written. The first of these three ways of narrative is illustration, which is essentially when the video tells the story the lyrics are telling. The second type of narrative in this theory is amplification, which is where the images from the video amplify a deeper meaning from the lyrics that may not be seen if it was just the lyrics alone. Disjuncture is where there is very little connection if any between the lyrics and video, or when the video contradicts the lyric.

 

The song Charmless Man by Blur from the album Charmless man, and it is a great example of illustration.

 

This music video tells the story and shows the “Charmless Man” and presents him in the video exactly how he is described in the lyrics. This is a great example of illustration. Everything from the way he is dressed to the fact that “no one’s listening” to him shows that the video is purely exhibiting what the lyrics are describing.

 

The song Take Me to Church by Hozier is a great example of amplification in a music video.

The music video tells the story of a gay couple not being accepted which highlights a hidden meaning in the church. The black and white colourisation of the music video signifies the old fashioned and almost medieval homophobic perspective portrayed by the majority of the cast in the music. Also, it makes the video look darker, reflecting the intense, dark theme of the music video. The burning of the books and possessions of the gay couple at the end of the video also reflects the true horrific nature of the homophobia they are experiencing. This video is really trying to promote Hozier as an artist who is trying to put a stop to homophobia and discrimination in general.

 

 

The song Yellow by the band Coldplay from the album Parachutes. It is a great example of a song with a disjuncture form of narrative.

 

 

The music video clearly has absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics. The singer from the band (Chris Martin) is just walking down a beach on a rainy day. In fact, the dark and miserable weather almost juxtaposes the uplifting and happy lyrics from the song. This shows that this is an example of a disjuncture narrative in the music video.