ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been considerable debate on the extent to which the musical content in pop videos has become subordinate to the visual realisation. Whilst there are some exemplary texts on the analysis of music video (not least in Kobena Mercer’s reading of Michael Jackson’s Thriller tape, 1 Jody Berland’s exploration of the relationship between sound and image in music videos 2 , and Andrew Goodwin’s evaluation of the problems in applying postmodern theory to music video 3 ) there is still a marked absence of theoretical models which move beyond the limitations of content analysis, and which allow for a critical examination of the textual links between sound and vision in establishing meaning.
