By Rebecca Wilson

ANDREW GOODWIN’S MUSIC VIDEO THEORY

Andrew Goodwin, a director of music, noted how music videos feature certain elements.

Goodwin addresses these six steps in his book ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ to bring it to the audience’s attention as well as assist music video directors when creating a music video.

ANDREW GOODWIN

Depending on your music artist’s genre or the style of song choice depends on what style of video is created.

For example, rock bands tend to opt for stage performances, showing the singer shouting down a microphone, the guitarists thrashing the chords and the drummer putting all their body into hitting the drums, expressing how ‘tough’ and ‘hard’ rock is.

Another example would be for pop music or a girl band featuring the artist(s) performing a dance routine to the song, focusing on the sexual element in the video.

Nº1 MUSIC VIDEOS DEMONSTRATE GENRE

CHARACTERISTICS.

Goodwin’s second step focuses on how lyrics match up with the Music Video’s visuals. When you hear a song, you feel the emotion and the message wanting to be put across by the artist which is usually what is then seen in the music video.

Bruno Mars’ ‘Grenade’ is a prime example of the lyrics matching the visual.

The lyrics speak of Mars giving everything for a girl he loves, shown here how he is willing to carry a piano all the way through a city, up a hill to serenade her. The ‘but you won’t do the same’ is addressed when Mars fi nally reaches the girls house to fi nd she has a new man and has broken his heart.

Nº2 THERE IS A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS. THE LYRICS ARE REPRESENTED WITH

IMAGES.

I would go through all this pain,Take a bullet straight through my brain,

Yes I would die for you baby,But you won’t do the same!

Similarly to step 2, the tone of the music must match* the visuals featured in the music video.

Listen to the audio track of ‘Grenade’ cut straight from the video and you can hear the upset in Bruno’s voice and his face whilst singing in the video looks pained as though he is heartbroken.

The music itself is all in minor chords reflecting the visuals of the video’s protagonist being pained.

Extra sounds eff ects added into the music video include glass smashing and a thunder cloud creating a dark, upsetting mood.

*However, sometimes it is del iberate to contradict the sounds or lyr ics with the visuals to emphasise the emotion. For example, how sad the song real ly is by involv ing animals frol icking in a fi eld happi ly, together in harmony.

Nº3THERE IS A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS. THE TONE AND ATMOSPHERE OF THE

VISUAL REFLECTS THAT OF THE MUSIC.

Record labels will want the most promotion possible for their artist.

This is why a lot of the time Music Video’s have the solo artist or frontman as the protagonist in narrative videos.

The camerawork is all positioned around the artist, featuring mainly close ups to set the artist in the audience’s mind.

The artist may form a visual motif (style) making them more memorable when a new video is released. I.e. Lady Gaga’s obscurity and strange outfi ts in her music video’s lets everyone know who she is straight away.

Nº4THE DEMANDS OF THE RECORD LABEL WILL INCLUDE THE NEED FOR LOTS OF CLOSE UPS OF

THE ARTIST AND THE ARTIST MAY DEVELOP MOTIFS WHICH REOCCUR ACROSS THEIR WORK.

The fifth step in Goodwin’s theory is this reference to ‘looking’. It’s a visual technique which involves stages and mirrors: all focusing on the artist.

Most music videos include ‘voyeurism’ i.e. women undressing, performing sexual acts but this is implied more than seen as there are restrictions on what you see. This is mainly used as a common interest for the audience and to promote and sell the artist using sexuality, a common marketing strategy in the media.

Nº5THERE IS FREQUENTLY REFERENCE TO NOTION OF LOOKING (SCREENS WITHIN SCREENS, MIRRORS,

STAGES) AND PARTICULARLY VOYEURISTIC TREATMENT OF THE FEMALE BODY.

This step in the theory isn’t always applied but is mainly used when the artist is linked to other medias.

Movie soundtracks or parodies of other media’s is used in few music videos as they are shown globally and may not be universally understood. It can also be used as a promotion technique. People who like the intertextual reference in the video, will like the video. Those who like the artist will then go on to like the intertextual reference.

Beyoncé’s ‘Work it Out’ video featuresclips from the fi lm ‘Austin Powers in Goldmember’, a fi lm she features in,promoting the artist’s video and actingcareer.

Nº6  THERE ARE OFTEN INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCE (TO FILMS, TV PROGRAMMES, OTHER

MUSIC VIDEOS) ETC.