RESEARCH: Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin: Dancing in the Distraction Factory

In his book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' Andrew Goodwin stated that he felt that the tradition narrative analysis doesn't apply to pop videos. He states several reasons for the vast amount of variations when it comes to pop music videos:

1. Pop videos are built around songs – and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures..
2. Pop video uses the singer both as the narrator and as a character.
3. The singer often looks directly at the camera – this involves the viewer, creating a closer connection between the artist and viewer.

He also states that 'pop videos rely on repetition'. This is usually evident with the chorus or certain images/events reoccurring throughout a video. This can be done for the effect of the song to be more memorable and stick into the readers mind. The lyrics or image repeated may also be done so to attract the viewers to certain parts and keep the viewer constantly entertained. With the many different styles, Goodwin decided that it can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and videos: Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture.

Illustration is a very simple video in which you see what is in the lyrics. It is quite clear to the audience that the story in the lyrics is being replayed through the video. For example, in the music video below of 'Same Girl' as the two artists are describing the girl and their actions, the female actress is simulataneously being visually presented in the video.

Amplification is where the story told is somewhat similar to what the artist is singing as at some times we see clear levels of illustration. However the overall storyline differs slightly giving off different interpretations to what we may have expected in the music video. The example of 'LaLaLa' is a good one, as the child and other actors illustrate some of the lyrics in the music video but the storyline is ambiguous.

Disjuncture has the music video very different to the both the lyrics and story told through lyrics. The lyrics could contradict the music video or just have very little connection to it. The video presents drugs and stereotypes whilst the lyrics are speaking of the artists upbringing and speaks of women, which we hardly see in the video.