Andrew Goodwin: dancing in the Distraction factory

Traditional narrative analyses doesn't apply to pop videos because:
1. pop videos are narrated around songs
2. pop songs uses the singer as both the actor and narrator
3. the singer looks directly into the camera (to involve viewers at home)

Pop videos are often 3 to 4 minutes long and have a form of closure and ending. Their videos usually have built a climax just before it begins to fade or a consistent repetition before fading away.
In some cases the visualization of a song may go beyond the original meaning of a song. It may be visually pleasing to the audience to encourage a repeated viewing. However some videos may be promoting other visuals such as films.

There are 3 types of relations between songs an videos:
1. Illustration: where a video tells the story of the lyrics.
2. Amplification: when videos tell the meaning to the song that do not contradict the lyrics.
3. Disjuncture: When there is no or little connection between the lyrics and videos.

Example:

Disjuncture:

Man in the mirror is about self recognition but the video is about full racial world events.


In pop videos there are a few easily recognizable feature. In pop videos women are often presented as objects of male desires; for example, Madonna and Beyoncé deliberately present themselves for males to look at. Moreover in some pop videos different instruments are represents by different objects.

Some artists try appeal to a wider audience without visually without trying to alienate their target audience. Also some videos that were made specifically for films often incorporate scenes from the film.