Illustration, Amplification and disjuncture

Notes Taken From Andrew Goodwin's Dancing in Distraction Industry 

Music videos are relatively autonomous  from the music in a number of ways:  The visualization of a song may go beyond its meaning  The clips seek to provide pleasure in order to keep the viewer watching and to encourage repeated viewings  Clips might promote other commodities - films  Clips might display images of stardom that exceed any given individual song  

Three codes of popular music (music, lyrics, iconography) do not always constitute an unified address. This conflict routinely spills over into music videos.

Debate about whether or not the video image triumphs over the song itself- need to take into account of where the emphasis lies in the visualization- whether or not it illustrates, amplifies or contradicts the meaning of the song

Three kinds of relation between songs and videos: illustration, amplification and disjuncture.

ILLUSTRATION- Clips in which the visual narrative tells the story of the song lyric.Business of illustrating songs is fraught with danger - making it to literal of metaphors and trophies.Involve the effort to signify a mood, as opposed to telling a story- dance is often illustrated in this way, in which the singer tell us he/she is feeling romantic and the dancing attempts to visualize this.  Similar device in hip hop and rap - occurs when the words tell us that the music is going to make us feel, or want to dance (often a sexual metaphor)  If we include these kinds of instances as variations of illustrative narratives- clear that large proportion of clips do occupy this category.  

AMPLIFICATION -  Clip introduces new meanings that do not conflict, but they add layers of meaning. Closely related to disjuncture  Concepts are amplified

DISJUNCTURE- Clips might also, intentionally or not involve disjuncture between lyrics and image- may be two kinds:  Disjuncture may be one in which the imagery has no apparent bearing on the lyrics. Such cryptic strategies are unusual and often signal that the act in question is making a claim upon cultural capital. Question of disjuncture often at the heart of censorship issues - when a songwriter claims a meaning for a song that broadcast institutions read differently through its video image. 

This music video, 2Pacs 'Brenda's got a baby' is an example of Goodwin's illustration concept. The visuals/images match the lyrics exactly,for instance when the lyrics 'and her dad was a junkie putting death into his arms' come up it is accompanied by the image of Brenda's dad injecting drugs into his arms. The lyrics and visuals go hand in hand to depict Brenda's story.

This music video is an example of disjuncture, for instance the music video itself shows little correlation to lyrics. For example the lyrics are telling a story about how the artist, Childish Gambino  wants is a girl who can keep pace with him. We rarely see any images that help depict this.

Here is another example of illustration done in a different way. In  Goodwin's theory it states that illustration often involves the effort of signifying mood, this song is all about seduction and the fact the dances moves in this music video are depicting this it is a perfect example of illustration. In which it uses dance as opposed to telling a story.

'Rock Bottom' is an example of amplification. For instance when the lyrics state ' my mind starts to derange, distortion to rage' its referring to his thoughts being distorted and this idea is reinforced as the shots of the objects and people around him change, for example the lady having the face of a cactus. The distortion is being amplified. 

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