Planning: Andrew Goodwin's theory on illustration, amplification and disjuncture

Andrew Goodwin identifies that traditional narrative analyses don’t apply to pop videos, the reasons behind this is because they approach narrative from a different angle as opposed to novels and films, this is because pop videos are built around songs, occasionally they use the singer both as a narrator and as a character, and the singer looks directly at the camera. Due to pop videos often relying on repetition of images, viewers become familiar with the genre and therefore have certain expectations. Pop songs regularly tend to end either with a climax or to a constant repetition before fading away. Songs and videos are known to have connections within three aspects these are: illustrations, amplification and disjuncture.

Illustration is the song’s lyrics being shown in a visual form, for instance “Fireflies” by Owl City. Whenever the singer sings the part “fireflies”, the word itself appears on a gadget.

While, amplification refers to new meanings being introduced that do not contradict with the lyrics by add layers of meanings. On the other hand, disjuncture is when the songs meaning is completely ignored and a whole new set of meanings are introduced, an example of this could be “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, as the entire music video contradicts the lyrics.

There are many conventions of a pop music video, some of which are how women are presented as objects of male desire. Many videos also try appeal to wide audiences without completely ignoring their core target audience. Many songs are actually written for particular movies, the most popular being “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion from “Titanic”.