andrew goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin
'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (1993)

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music videos. They are:
- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.
- The singer is used as a narrator and a character.
- Artist often looks directly at the camera to involve viewers.
- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist also to involve viewers.
- Songs written for paticular movies often incorporate images from that movie in the video.
- Lastly, the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals are either an illustration, an amplification or a disjuncture.


Illustration: when there is a literall interpretation of the lyrics through whats going on in the video. The video Emotions by Destinys Child is an example of an illustration track as the lyrics in the narrative about being emotional over men is portrayed in the video.

Amplification: when the videos indtroduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning, like in the video Thriller by Micheal Jackson. The extra story before, in between and at the end of the video about Micheal being a monster on his date is not portrayed in the lyrics, but adds the meaning of thrill to the video.


Disjuncture: where there is little or no connection between the lyrics and video. In Coldplay's video Yellow, there is no connection between the lyrics about a man's unrequited love for someone including lines such as 'you know I love you so' and 'i wrote a song for you' and the video where lead singer Chris Martin lip synching as he walks along the beach wearing a raincoat and wet hair, suggesting that it had just rained. The video is one continuous shot with no cuts and the entire sequence is in slow motion.