Theories 2- Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin produced a book called ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ where he stated that the editing style is focused on three areas:

- Illustration

- Amplification

- Disjuncture

But it’s further split into the areas of looking at the lyrics, music and image of a band or artist.

Illustration

Music – The shots always cut on the beat.

Lyrics – The images illustrate the literal meaning or feeling of the lyrics, mainly  just with the band singing and dancing.

Band Image - The band simply singing/dancing/playing instruments, usually dressed as would be expected to the genre.

Above is a Gif of One Direction, who are dresses casually and in their video's the shots are always cut on the beat, and also their lyrics match visually with what is in the video.

Amplification

Music – Shots cut on and off the beat, to emphasise certain features.

Lyrics – The images amplify the lyrics & create a specific narrative, could be used as certain things aren’t picked up from just reading the lyrics. 

Band Image – The band could take on fictional roles in the narrative.

In Katy Perry's video of E.T she takes on a fictional role as an alien, however still a Phantasmagorical body is still revealed here to attract the target audience. 

Disjuncture

Music – Shots cut off the beat, can be a sign of a badly made music video, (but not always).

Lyrics – The images don’t relate to the lyrics that are used, sometimes used by bands who are already very well established, and who can afford to take the risk.

Band Image – The band/artist takes on an image that’s completely opposite of their expected image, e.g. Ed Sheeran ‘you need me.’

Above is a Gif from Ed Sheeran's music video called Lego House, which uses another character throughout the video to express his love for Ed, then finally at the end they meet in this form, making him happy. This is a very different approach to the video to not actually have the main singer starring in the video. Sheeran does this in many other videos for example You need me, where he uses another person to act out the whole song in sign language.