Andrew Goodwin
'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (1993)
Andrew Goodwin believes that traditional narrative analyses using ideas like Todorov do not apply to pop videos. He also believes that pop videos approach narrative differently from novels and films.
Reasons for the different narrative structures;
- Pop videos are built around songs, often the songs do not show the traditional structures ( Normality- Problem- resolution)
- In a pop video the artist is used as a character and a narrator
- Artist usually looks straight into the camera to involve the viewer with the performance.
Pop Videos rely on repetition, images may be repeated the same way a chorus or a line would be. Repetition in songs of other songs (intertextuality) means that we become familiar with the genre and have expectations for videos of those genres. The video would then be played on TV, radio and might also be used as an advertising tie-in for films of TV making the song familiar through repetition.
Advert: Icelolly.com -- Compare Packages
Music: Hot Chocolate -- You Sexy Thing
The advert above made an effective impact on the audience (me) because many people remember catchy phrases or jingles.
Pop songs and also videos have a form of closure and ending. The single that the video is based on must end this is often reflected in the structure of the music - there is a build to climax or to a constant repetition before it fades away.
Some videos are independent from the music they come from. The visualisation may go beyond the original meaning. Some videos make visual pleasure which makes people what to watch the video again, this then promotes the music. They can sometimes promote other things such as films. There are three types of relations between songs and videos : Illustration, amplification and disjuncture.
Illustration; Video tells the story of the lyric, Dance is often used express to feelings/moods in the song.
Taylor Swift- You belong with me
The song combines narrative and performance, the song is about a girl (Taylor Swift) who feels she belong to a guy who is already taken. The video illustrates how she feels about the guy, but the guy is not aware, the lyrics tell the audience shows her feelings and the video shows her feelings, moods and actions towards this.
Amplification; Videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.
Amy Whinehouse - You know im no good
The lyrics are not actually reflected in the video and the situations are not actually happening to her. They can be seen as metaphorical representations of her life.
Distjuncture: Little connection between the lyric and the video or where the video contradicts the lyric.
The Saturdays - Missing you
As shown in the title the song is meant to be about someone 'missing' someone. In the video we expect to see this. But the video does the opposite and shows the artists in different locations. The artists sing directly at the camera, this directs the song and performance to the audience making them feel involved.
Pop videos often have a recognisable feature(s). One example would be Micheal Jackson's yelp and/ or twirl in his videos.
Another feature would be the way women are represented as objects of males desire, mainly true in heavy metal and hip hop videos.
Below an snapshot from 50cent's video 'Candy shop'- women are wearing bikinis and chocolate is being poored over them connoting that women are things to eat, or 'sweet' in a sense.
Some artists ; Madonna and Beyonce purposely present themselves for males to look at. what is different about their videos is that they look directly into the camera at the viewers and they cease to be passive.
Videos try to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible without leaving out the main target audience. Those with older bands will often show them in their younger days; this would be in the 60's 70's so that the older audience can still recognise them.
Videos that are song written for a particular movie will often incorporate images from the film into thoe video. Celine Dion - My heart will go on from titanic
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