Research: Andrew Goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin’s theory: Codes and conventions

‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ 1993

Andrew Goodwin believes that music videos have a completely different structure compared to novels and films because they approach narrative from a different angle. For example pop videos are created around the song and often the song doesn’t have a traditional narrative structure (normality-problem-resolution). Secondly the pop video uses the singer both as a character and narrator, whereas traditional narrative structures have two different people for each role. Lastly in music videos they break the ‘4^th rule’ by making the singer look directly at the camera to make the audience feel more involved with the performance.

Music videos depend on repetition to help the audience become familiar with the genre. For example music videos repeat images in the songs the same way songs repeat choruses or line, also they repeat parts of songs and rhythm from other songs, this is known as intersexuality. Furthermore the video would be played on TV and the song would be played on the radio, which makes the song familiar through repetition.

There are three connections between songs and videos:

·      Illustration – this is the relationship between the song and the music video. It’s the simplest concept to base a music video around because it’s just literal meaning to the song lyrics.

Example: Ed Sheeran – Give me love

The music video Ed Sheeran – Give me love is a great example of illustration because in the music video the song illustrates the visuals throughout the video. For example when Ed Sheeran says ‘I just want to hold you’ in the song, this is then visually illustrated in the music video using a figure holding the other. This convention is found in a lot of pop/soul songs.

·     Amplification – this occurs when the video goes against the lyrics of the song but adds meaning.

Example: Jessie J – Price tag

The music video Jessie J – Price tag is a contradiction of the lyrics because in the song she says ‘its not about the money, money, money’ however in the music video she is sitting under a tree made of money, which is a huge contradiction. This signifies the quote 'going against the lyrics but adds meaning' because she's trying to say that the music industry's currently all about money which is shown  here using the tree made of money. 

·      Disjuncture – this is when the content and the genre of the song are ignored and the video portrays a whole new set of meanings. 

      

      Example: Lady Gaga - poker face 

      Lady Gaga has a unique styled which is shown throughout her videos. One of her unique techniques are using disjuncture in her videos to portray a whole new set of meanings. In Lady Gaga - Poker Face nothing in the video connects with the lyrics. For example at 0:25 - 0:28 she says 'I wanna hold 'em like they do in Texas please', however she isn't doing anything that relates to this as seen below. This shows that the content of the song is ignored.