Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative analyses don't really apply to pop videos. There are a number of reasons for this, it is just that they approach narrative from different angle to novels and films. The reasons for the different narrative structures are as follows:
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 - this is an extension of (music- hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.


Pop videos relp on repetition. Images are repeated in the video, like the song repeats the chrous or lines. Repetition in songs of parts of rhythms of other songs (intertextuality) means that the audience become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations. The video would be played on TV, and the song would be played on the radio. The song could be also promoted in films.

Pop videos and songs, have a closure or ending. The 3 minute single that a video is based on must end in the struture of the music, which builds up to a constant repetition before ending.

Some videos are seperate from the music they spring from. The song that the audience see may go beyond the original meaning. Sometimes the video provides visual meaning, so the video is repeated viewing which therefore promotes the music. Sometimes the video may be promoting other commodities such as films.
There are three types of relations between songs and videos:
1) Illustration : this is where the video tells the story of the lyric "Papa don't preach" (Madonna) for example. Dance is often used to express the feelings/moods in the song.
2) Amplification : occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.
3) Disjuncture : this is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. Michael Jackson's "Man in the mirror" is an example of this. The song is about self -realisation but, the video is full of radical world events.