4. Andrew Goodwin's Theory

“Dancing in the Distraction Factory” (1993)

Andrew Goodwin doesn’t believe in music videos following a traditional narrative style. He didn’t believe that ideas from the likes of Todorov necessarily apply to pop music videos.

Todorov’s ideas involved a standard sequence that is usually followed to create the narrative:

•        Equilibrium – there is a balance between good and evil in the universe

•        Disruption – An event takes place; event portrayed as negative

•        Recognition of disruption – the protagonist usually recognises the disruption

•        Attempt to repair disruption – the protagonist would then set about repairing the “damage"caused by the antagonist

•        Restoration of NEW equilibrium – balance is returned to the universe.

It also doesn’t mean that pop videos are attempting to be “avant garde”; music videos are just easier to steer away from a typical narrative because they involve a lot of repetition. For example, the chorus of a pop song can be repeated up to three times, therefore, repetition may also be applied to the music video (the same scene may be associated with the chorus).

“avant garde” – new and experimental ideas.

Intertextuality is the reference to a media text via another media text. Intertextuality is common in music videos because many directors that direct well known videos are film graduates. Intertextuality can be done in a comedic style, such as a parody. For example:

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers song "Don't Come Around Here No More has an Alice In Wonderland theme:

Repetition plays a huge role in the success of a music video. The song may be played on the radio, the  video on TV or online and there might be an advertisement of the album on TV. This would make the song very familiar.

There are three types of relations between songs and videos:

Illustration – this is where the video narrates the lyrics to the song. An example is “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift. The video fits the category because the video reflects the lyrics;Taylor Swift's lyrics tend to be narrative in themselves.

Amplification – this is where the video introduces new meanings to a video but doesn’t contradict the lyrics. An example is “Please Don’t Leave Me” by P!nk. The video still relates to her not wanting her boyfriend to leave her, but the need for him to stay is amplified; realistically she would not be playing a doctor at home etc.

Disjuncture – this is where there is little connection between the video and the lyrics. For example, “Paper Doll” by John Mayer. The lyrics have no connection to the woman dancing on her own in a public place. The video was also very simple; one take.

In many videos, women are portrayed as sexual objects. However, this is frequently done by female musicians themselves such as Beyonce. Some female musicians present themselves as sexually attractive but this is combined with power and strong lyrics, for example, “Who Run The World (Girls) by Beyonce.

Videos also try to gain as wide an audience as possible without alienating the core audience. This is evident through many of the artists that change their image or the genre of music that they are associated with. For example, Miley Cyrus, who started off on the Disney channel and completely changed her “squeaky clean” image. Another example is Taylor Swift, who switched from recording country music to transitioning into pop music. She successfully managed to maintain her previous audience by keeping her lyrics recognisable but reached out to more people as pop music generally has a larger audience than country.

Finally, a lot of videos are created for songs that are on a movie soundtrack. This means that the video involves the artist of the song but also, most commonly, scenes from the film that correspond with the lyrics. An example is “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion.