Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin explored the structure of music videos and after reading a chapter from his book ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ he tells us more about the narrative structures and what music videos share.

1.       Pop videos are built around songs – and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures (normality – problem – resolution)

2.       The pop video uses the singer both as narrator and as a character

3.       The singer often looks directly at the camera – To involve the viewer at home with the performance.

Music videos often repeat images, this is done by base tracking, and the images are usually

repeated during the chorus. Goodwin also mentions that the music video would be played on

TV, the song would be played on radio or it might be advertising a film making the song very

familiar through repetition. Videos do have a form of closure and ending by building into a

climax or to a constant repetition before fading away.

Some videos are autonomous from the music they spring from. The video of a song may go beyond the original meaning or provide visual pleasure that encourages more viewing which therefore promotes the music. 

Goodwin describes in categories three types of relations between songs and videos:

1.       Illustration: Video tells the story of the lyric (common in RnB videos)

2.       Amplification: Video introduces new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning (exaggerates certain lyrics)

3.       Disjuncture: The video has very little connection between the actual lyrics or where if contradicts the lyric (sometimes I get a good feeling)

Something else which is also very important when discussing music videos is the representation of females.  Women are presented as objects of male desire and we often see videos dismembering parts of the body.  
Some artists such as Beyonce and Madonna deliberately present themselves for males to look at.