Research: Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin is mostly know for his theories on the structure of music videos. He is also very well known for having written the book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' in 1993. He believed that traditional narrative analysis doesn't really apply to pop videos. Todorov, on the other hand, believed that we need a narrative to make connections and links in order to make better sense of things. He also thought that in most things we all seek a beginning, a middle, and an end. Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation, as the character or situation transforms as they go through a process of disruption. Very briefly, process is the firstly everything is fine, secondly its disrupted by something/someone, and thirdly its sorted out.

Goodwin however believes that:
- Pop videos are designed around the song, and a songs structure is usually verse/chorus/verse/chorus, so there is no beginning, middle, and end to it.
- The artist is acting as both the narrator and the character helps to make the video unique, and it is dependent on the artists lip sync and making that seem like he/she is really performing to the person watching.
- Eye contact, which is basically just the artist looking at the camera makes it seem as if he/she is looking at you which makes it involve the viewer more (breaking the 4th wall).

Other characteristics include:
- Repetition of an image/s is often found in music videos when the chorus or similar lines are played.
- Intertextuality: the beat or rhythm from other songs means that we become familiar with the genre. Or like Leona Lewis saw the song 'I see you' for Avatar, and it was the movie soundtrack and the music video for the song were extracts from the film.
- Features: Certain artists/genres have particular things they include in their videos, whether it is products or special types of dances or including certain characters, for example females. Females are often objectified in certain genres of music.

There are three types of relations between the songs and videos:
- Illustration
- Amplification
- Disjuncture

When the video tells the story of the lyric it is called illustration, for example Madonna's 'Papa Don't Preach'. An example of this in the video would be when she sings: 'Cause I was always your little girl and she is seen jumping into her dads arms and he then picks her up and carries her. 

It is called amplification when the videos introduce new meanings but at the same time do not contradict with the the lyrics by adding more meaning to them. A good example of this would be the Amy Winehouse song called 'Back to Black', which is her singing about loosing someone and the video is of her at a funeral.

When there is little connection between the lyric and the video or when the video contradicts the lyric it is said to be disjuncture. An example of this is the Bat for lashes song 'Whats a girl to do' where the song is about love but they are riding bicycles (which replaces the dancing).