Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis - Theory

Andrew Goodwin wrote a book called 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'.
He also argues that pop videos can be categorised in 3 ways:

Illustration:

- Music : Always cuts on the beat
- Lyrics : Images illustrate the literal meaning or feeling of the lyrics, often just with the band singing and dancing.
- Band Image : The band siging, dancing, playing instruments and also dressed in clothes what suit their genre.

A good example of a music video that uses this type of illustration editing is Alicia Keys vide try sleeping with a broken heart. We see her displaying her feelings strongly all the way through out the music video. These emotions that she uses relate to the lyrics in the song. When looking at her we can see that she is in pain and she is broken hearted.

Amplification:

- Music : Shot cuts on the beat but also off the beat to empathise features of the music.
- Lyrics : Images amplify the lyrics. A specific narative may be used that would not necessarily be picked up from reading the lyrics alone.
- Band Image : The band take on fictional roles in the narrative.
Scouting for Girls - 'This aint a love song'. This is amplification because it is more, they go deeper with the meaning of the lyrics. The main singer is playing part of the 'fiction' in the video and he is acting parts of the lyrics because he don't meet up with anyone at the end so this could be saying 'Goodbye'.

Disjunctive:

- Music : Music cuts off the beat, sometimes (but not always) the sign of a badly made music video.
- Lyrics : Images which do not relate to the lyrics are used, sometimes used by bands who are already well established who can afford to take the risk to produce a video like this.
- Band Image : The band will take on the image that is nothing like or the complete opposite of their expected image. e.g. lead singer of 'Texas' dressed up as Elvis.

When starting a new boyband you would not take the risk to make a video like this using disjuncture as they are not well established, it wouldn't look right and also you want to make money.