RESEARCH: Andrew Goodwin

In ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’, a novel by University of San Francisco’s media professor, Andrew Goodwin, came out in 1993. The novel explores topics regarding music television, and includes an interesting theory.  

Andrew Goodwin’s theory on music videos is that “traditional narrative analyses don’t really apply to pop videos”, there are three reasons that explain this theory.

·         Firstly, he believes that pop videos are built around songs, and that songs sometimes don’t have conventional narrative structures (normality, then the problem, then the resolution).

·         Secondly, in pop videos the artists’ role is both the narrator and the character.

·         Thirdly, the artist directly addresses the audience by looking straight at the camera (also known as ‘breaking the 4^th wall) as an attempt to involve the viewer with the performance.

Repetition is generally used in pop videos in order to make the audience familiar with the genre and have certain expectations. So the music video will be played on TV, the song will be played on the radio and the song will be advertised on films or TV in order to make the song recognizable through repetition.

Sometimes the visualization of a song may not relate much to the original meaning, this may be due to the fact that it provides a visual pleasure, encouraging viewers to watch it repetitively and therefore leading to the promotion of the song. Music videos often promote other commodities such as films which is beneficial for both the song and for the film.

There are 3 types of relations between songs and videos:

1.       Illustration

2.       Amplification

3.       Disjuncture

Sometimes music videos illustrate the connotation of the lyrics. Illustration is the most clear-cut structure for a music video; it is a good example of visualization. The example below, ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran, is a good example of illustration. In a the video is a girl, the song signifies the struggles that she has faced in her life and throughout the song she gets weaker and weaker, resulting in her death; the video shows this happening.

Amplification; when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning. The example below, Dont Let Me Fall by B.o.B, is a good example of amplification. The song is about him and his career; he is currently at a high point and does not want that to change, he does not want his fans to forget him. In the video there is a bit where he is holding onto something in order to avoid falling; this particular scene adds layers of meaning (that he does not want to fall).

Disjuncture; where there is little connection between the lyrics and video or where the video contradicts the lyrics. In the example below, Single Ladies by Beyonce, demonstrates the disjuncture structure. The song is about being single, whereas in the video it just shows Beyonce and 2 other women dancing throughout the whole video. Thus, there is no connection between the lyrics and the video. 

There are sometimes recognisable features in pop videos; an example of this being women being objectified for the male gaze. This feature exists mainly in hip hop and heavy metal videos. Also, artists try to make their videos appealing to a wide audience, older bands tend to be shown in their younger days on their music videos so younger people can relate to them, however these younger days would be in the 60s and 70s so that older people can still identify with them.