RESEARCH - Summary Of Andrew Goodwin's Theory

ANDREW GOODWINThe Structure of Music Video - Rethinking Narrative Analysis

According to Andrew Goodwin, a pop video, despite the fact that it approaches narrative from a different angle to novels and film, does not require a traditional narrative analysis. A narrative analysis consists of a 'normality-problem-resolution' structure, and reasons for why a pop video does not require these different narrative structures are that:

• pop videos are built around a song, rather than a novel or film
• pop videos usually use the singer as both the narrator and character
• the singer in the pop videos makes direct eye contract with the camera to gain the viewer's attention

The popularity of a pop video relys on repitition; usually, images used for one chorus wil be the same throughout the other choruses and repitition of song parts or rhythms from other songs, known as intertextuality, is used to familiarise the viewer with the genre. This not only allows the viewers to know the song, but to start having an interest in the artist. In addition, it is required for the pop video to be played on TV as well as through the radio to maintain the reputation with such an audience.

Many modern pop video's are autonomous and therefore do not require a traditional narrative analysis, meaning, the visualisation of a song may go beyond the original meaning, or the images played in the video may disconnect with what is actually being sang about. Autonomous pop video's allow the viewer to promote the music, because the enjoyable images, though which are unrelated to the lyrics of the song, provide a visual pleassure, allowing them to take interest in the song.

Pop video's often have recognisable features such as the representation of women as objects of male desire through the clothing, make-up and setting with female singers. Female artists including Beyonce and Madonna are examples of who purposely deliver their performances for men through the eye-contact they keep with the camera, their bodily language and revealing clothing; they help to support the theory of Laura Mulvey, 1992, that 'In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fanstasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly'. Mulvey suggests that due to the sexual inequality between men and women, men have a sexual desire from women and 'mix and match' how they prefer women to appear. In pop video's, female artists fulfil this pleasurable requirement for men through the way they dress and look and encourages young female adults to change their appearance in order to be 'wanted' by men.
So pop video's are not based on the traditional narrative analysis but around what makes the video and the artists popular; the main aim for a video is that it will appeal to as wide an audience as possible without ignoring the tartget audience which will help booth the popularity of the song.