Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin's theory explains that music videos are that of three types. These three types are illustration, amplification and disjuncture.

Illustration - Everything you see in the finished version derives directly from the lyrics of the song. If there are other shots, they are linked to what is being sung.

Amplification - This type of video has sequences which add extra meaning that aren't necessarily in the lyrics themselves.

Disjuncture - Where the images on the video have no apparant link to the song's lyrics.

Illustration

An example of illustration in a music video is ''Like A Boss'' by The Lonely Island. Each line of the song is demonstrated in context with the title of the song. The song starts with it's own unique beginning, an interview scene. The interviewer asks ''Take us through a day in the life of the boss'' which is what starts the music to come in.

The lyrics ''Like a boss'' is repeated after every other line. This repetition doesn't get boring throughout the song because it's said in such a way that it makes you want to sing along. The quick jump cuts to each scenario shows the fast pace of the song and also shows how 'busy' the life of the boss is. This keeps the video entertaining and is probably what sells the song more, rather than the actual tune of the music. The video is the unique selling point for this video. The lyric's are quite immature and mostly appeal to teenagers.

This video is also entertaining simply because of the people in it. The Lonely Island are well known for doing funny songs and Seth Rogen also makes an appearance. Seth Rogan is a Canadian actor and comedian.

Here is the clean version of the video:

Amplification

An example of amplification is a song called ''Pieces'' by Sum 41. This song is an Alternative Rock song. This video shows the vocalist all alone in a world full of lies. The meaning behind the song is not to try and chase perfection as it isn't what you think it is. This is shown excellently through the background behind the vocalist and the vans with the people inside them.

The lighting used in the video is mostly low key lighting to leave the vocalist in the dark representing his loneliness. At the end of the video you can connote further meaning from this video as the sign on the vocalist's van says ''The Perfect Life'' and then as the camera pan away, the ''f'' in the word ''Life'' falls off leaving the sentence to read ''The Perfect Li e''.

Here is the video:

Disjuncture

An example of a music video that shows disjuncture is a song called ''Wonderwall'' by Oasis. In this video, many different scenes are shown including that of a barbers, a clown doing tricks, a man making a guitar, a bunch of swinging hand saws and others. These scenarios have nothing to do with the lyrics and are completely random. I think it makes it interesting as a song about love or happiness such as this may bore people. These random events keep the attention of the viewers but the song itself doesn't really need a video to be a success.

The video is shot in a grey scale (black and white) and at times you can see part of an object in colour. The colours seen are blue, green and yellow. This doesn't really coincide with the lyrics and neither does the scenarios they are in.

Here is the video: