Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative analyses dont really apply to pop videos. There are many reasons for this but it isn't because pop videos are trying to be avant garde- it is just that they approach narrative from a different angle to novels and films.
Reasons for the different narrative structures are:

• Pop videos are built around songs -and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures (normality-problem-resolution)
• The pop video uses the singer both as a character and a narrator 
• Singer often looks directly at the camera- this is an extension of (music hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance

Leona Lewis- Trouble. Singer as the narrator- looking directly at the screen

Leona Lewis- Trouble. Singer is in character

Pop videos rely on repetition, often the video repeats images in the way the song repeats choruses or lines. Also the video would be played on TV, the song would be played on the radio and there might be an advertisingfilm or TV tie-in making the song very familliar through repetition.

It can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and videos: illustration, amplification, and disjuncture.

Illustration:
This is where the video tells the story of the lyrics and dance is often used to express the feelings/mood in the song. For example Leona Lewis's video Trouble. The reason for this is because as you can see in the video when the singer does get into character the video does relate to her lyrics and does tell a story.

Amplification:
This occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning


Disjuncture:

This is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. An example that Andrew Goodwin gives in Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror, this is because the song is about self- realisation but the video is full of radical world events.


Pop videos often have easily recognisable features. One feature is the way women are presented as objects od male desire- particulary true in heavy metal and hip hop videos.

Videos that are from songs written for particular movies often incorporate images from that movie in the video such as Celine Dion's  My Heart Will Go On from Titanic.