RESEARCH: Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's theory is very much based around pop videos. He thinks that pop video challenge the traditional narrative analyses. He believes that there are three main reasons for the narrative of pop videos having different structures.

·         The first one is that pop videos are built around the song; this means that songs do not often pose traditional narrative structures.

·         The singer will often and regularly look into the camera, as opposed to things like films where that would not happen. They do this to captivate the fans at home and to try to involve them in the song.  

·         The narrator and the character are both played by the singer in pop videos.

In pop videos, there is always a lot of repetition. Artists will often repeat certain images or locations according to parts of the song that is being played. For instance, if they showed a girl swinging in a park during the first chorus, they will probably show the girl swinging again in the next chorus or show her again at the park doing something else. This then creates expectations and knowledge about the genre among the audience and creates expectations of what to expect in a typical pop video.


Unusually, a pop song and therefore video will have a set ending. The video will build up to a climax or to a constant repetition before it finally fades away. This leaves the audience interested in what may have happened next or what the next music video is going to be like.


It can be said that there are three types of music videos: Illustration, amplification, an disjuncture.

1.      Illustration: When the video follows the lyric of the story. It therefore tells the story of the lyrics and dance is often used in these videos as a means to express feelings and emotions.

2.      Amplification: This is when the video of the song adds on meaning to the song by adding additional layers to the story.

3.      Disjuncture: This is when the video has little connection to the song or where it even contradicts the song.

This is an example of an illustration video. The video follows the lyrics and makes sense. 





This is an example of an amplification video. The video is adding meaning to the song by showing the story. 








This is an example of a disjuncture video. This video has nothing to do with the song and does not make much sense at all. 



Also, pop videos will often have a repetition of a specific move that becomes quite significant to the artist. For example: Michael Jackson would give a slight yelp in all of his songs and we would know that it was Michael Jackson. Justin Bieber also has a sign that he often uses throughout his song 'One Time'.





Another feature of music videos is that that often genres like Hip hop or RnB will present women as objects of male desire. The clothes the women wear are provocative and will often be quite explicit.





However, artists like Beyoncé will purposely present themselves in that way and look directly into the camera and they cease to be passive.