Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin states that "Music videos ignore common narrative as they are essentially advertisements". This is because as consumers, we make up our own meaning of the song in our heads.

Conventions 

He says that music videos follow the following conventions:

• A relationship between the lyrics of the song and the visuals of the video, which contradicts, illustrate and ampilfy the lyrics of the song.

 Examples: The song 'Close' By Nick Jonas ft.Tove Love as the lyrics are talking about being afraid to become close to someone but in the music video the singers are getting closer and closer towards each other instead of moving further away which is contradicting the lyrics. 

The music video for of Ellie Golding's Burn is illustrating the lyrics of her song as she is standing in a field surrounded by lights that turn on when the lyrics in the song say 'Turn on the lights'. Also, the extras in the video act out the actions that are said in the lyrics of the song.

Beyonces music video of 'Pretty hurts'amplifies the lyrics of her song as her song is about how the beauty world damages women,  which has visuals of her crying in the music video, portraying the emotions of sadness. This therefor amplifies the sadness of the song.

• Thought beats: the transitions between the different clips that make the video change in time with the beat of the music (the relationship between the visuals of the music video and the music, which illustrate, amplify and contradict the music). 

An example of thought beats in a music video is the music video for Wiley 'Heatwave'. In the music video the clips change on the beats of the song.

• Genre-related style and iconography present: the relationship between the genre of the song and the style and props in the video - what you would expect to see in the video for a certain genre of song. For example, in a song of the genre of pop, which is by a woman, you would expect the style of the music video to be girly and the props in the song to be girly and maybe romantic. 

In Ariana Grande music video for her song into you, the filter of the video is a pink filter, which is associated with girls and there are a lot of sunsets. The sunsets represent the theme of romance.

• Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist: the creation of a star image to promote a recognizable brand image.The main person is made to look important.

In 5SOS music video for their song She looks so perfect, their main vocalist is positioned at the front whilst the other two band members are positioned in the background. This informs us that he is the main person and vocalist in the group, creating the representation that she is the star of the band.

• Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to female. Voyeuristic angles of women are used in music videos in order to attract a male audience. This is done to sexualise the artist. 

For example, in Beyoncé's music video for her song Partition, females are portrayed as sex objects through the angles of the shots of herself, the actions the women are doing and the women back-up dancers and the clothing that she and the rest of the women are wearing. 

• Intertexual references to other media texts may be present, especially in humorous videos.

This is when the visuals of the video or the lyrics of the song are a direct reference to another media text such as a film. The story of films are typically directly referenced in music videos.

For example Wiz Khalifas song 'See you again' have footage from Furious 7.

Key Aspects

Goodwin also stated in his theory behind music videos that there are five key aspects.

1. Thought beats - where you 'see' the sound. This is categorized into three steps:

• 1st step: When you look into the music and interpret it by looking at the verses/chorus.
• 2nd step: This is "the voice with the song" - this is when the artists voice is extremely unique and can be recognized for this quality. Examples of an artist like this is Ellie Goulding and Jessie J.
• 3rd step: where the artist is telling a story within their song and creates a reputation of a 'storyteller'. Therefore the music videos for the artists songs emphasise the lyrics and the story behind the song. An example of and artist who does this is Taylor Swift.

2. Narrative and performance. Goodwin stated that music videos should avoid the common narrative as their role is more like an advertisement for the song, than tell a story. The artist will therefore become both a participant and narrator within the music video to increase its authenticity for the audience lip synching and other actions featured in the video increases the verisimilitude and prevents the audience from disbelieving the performance/narrative.

3.  The star image. Goodwin identified that the star image is a key aspect of a music video as he believes that an iconic star image can increase an audiences awareness of the artist. This can show the artist developing a star image overtime. An example of this is Elvis Presley.

4. Relation of visual to song. This is categorized in three ways: amplify, illustrate and contradict (disjuncture).

5. Technical aspect of a music video. This is the different things that need to be considered when creating a music video that insure that the music video is a success:

• Camera - camera movements, camera angles and camera composition.
• Sound - pace of the song and the pitch of the song. These two things change with different music genres within the music industry.
• Mise-en-scene - location of the music video, costumes that the artist and extras are wearing, makeup and many more to make sure that the music video looks believable.
• Editing - effects that are added to the clips of videos that create the music video in the post production stage. The editing stage can change the pace of the video clips and ensures that the audience remain interested in the visuals of the music video.