Andrew Goodwin theory

       Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narratives analyses don’t really apply to pop videos.  There are numbers of reasons towards this like they approach narrative from a different angle to novel and films. The reason for the different narrative structure are as follows:

pop videos are built around songs- and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structure (normality-problem-resolution) which means that pop videos don’t use this structure as it is too long to do that, tell a story like films etc. The pop video uses the singer both as narrator and as a character. The singer often looks directly at the camera- this is an extension of (music hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.  Pop videos rely on repetition. Often the videos repeats image in the way the song repeats choruses or lines.  Also the repetition of the songs of parts or rhythms of other songs (intertexuality ) means that we the audience become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations.

Pop songs, and therefore videos, do have a form of closure and ending. The three minute single that a video is based on must end and this is often reflected in the structure of the music – it builds to a climax or to a constant repetition before fading away.

The visualisations of a song go beyond the original meaning. The videos provide a visual pleasure that encourages repeated viewing which therefore promotes the music. Sometimes the video might be promoting other commodities such as films. Therefore it can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and videos; Illustration; this is where the videos tells the story of the lyric ‘pap don’t preach’ (Madonna) .
 Dance is often used to express the feelings/moods in the song.

Amplification: Occurs when the videos introduce new meaning that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning e.g. Katy Perrys video ‘fire work’

Disjuncture: This is a where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyrics. Michael Jackson’s Man in the mirror is an example of this. This tune is about self-realisation but the video is full of radical world events.