Andrew Goodwin 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'

Andrew Goodwin published a book called 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' which consists of his research around the topic area of music videos, in this book he came up with a number of 'codes and conventions' which consist of a range of elements that many music videos all have in common.

Goodwin's theory identifies these key features:
- Genre characteristics e.g. stage performances in rock music videos, dance routines for girl/boy groups,women or throwing 'signs' in rap music videos

- Similarities between visuals and lyrics, this is used to often illustrate or could even amplify or contradict the lyrics giving us a visual representation to further feed our imagination and curiosity.
- There is a relationship between music and visuals which also contradict and expand on the lyrics that are being sung, once again providing us a visual representation of what is being said through the lyrics.

- The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist in order to therefore show off who the artist is, and practically make them known by their face, people tend to forget the names of artist but rather remember their face.

- The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work i.e. a visual style that shows of what theme the artist is going for that all link together through their attire, props or scenarios/locations.

Theorists- Richard Dyer's 'Star Theory'

Richard Dyer's can be split into three areas:
- The star as a commodity
- The star as a construction
- The star as an ideology

Stars are produced to create a profit off by selling merchandise related to them such as t-shirts, posters, albums etc...
Record labels have a habit to produce similar stars as they know certain trends in the music industry that sell well and generate a lot of money. This could also be the reason why we have so many similar boy bands e.g. One Direction and The Wanted.

The star can be constructed from the work they produce examples being music videos,magazines, advertising etc... you could say it's similar to having a public/celeb like image that 'stars' put on in order to sell their products meaning they don't really behave like that in their personal life, a perfect example for this would be Miley Cyrus, has gotten a lot of press for riding on a wrecking ball, naked, in one of her music videos from 2015, she obviously wouldn't do this in the comfort of her home meaning the person Miley Cyrus and the star are marketed as two different people.

Stars will also represent different social groups and views and will therefore create certain ideologies. As a result, fans of the star would often copy their style and share the same views. For example many fans of Beyonce would share her view of women and how they should be empowering and independent (to not controlled by men).

Dyer explains that there is a paradox of 'the star', which come in two key forms:
- The star must be ordinary and extraordinary; the star needs to be ordinary in order to relate to their audience and emphasise that they're humans too but to also possess some sort of extraordinary persona or talent, making the public idolise them.a celebrity example of this would be Adele, she possesses an ordinary persona of an ordinary women from London with her cockney accent however she has an amazing voice which people automatically idolise, giving her the image of a 'paradox of the star.'

Lastly... - The star must be both present and absent: this explains that the star must be present in our lives through materialistic values e.g. merchandise and social media, but also absent in the fact that they are not actually there or are out of reach, despite this fans of (for example) Justin Bieber, would tend to buy merchandise of him, support him through social media and buying his albums even though he isn't actual present or in front of them,

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