Andrew Goodwin - The Theory of the 'Music Video'

Andrew Goodwin's theory is made up of 6 main principals, which can be adapted to the construction of music videos. I will talk about each main principal and include an example from different music videos.

- Links between lyrics and visuals
  
Andrew Goodwin's theory suggests that the lyrics of that    particular song must make reference to the visuals that is seen on screen. This must be included at all times, so the viewer can understand the meaning of the song by listening to the lyrics and watching the visuals.

 An example of this is from the music video for 'Friday' by Rebecca Black. The opening lyrics of the song are '7AM waking up in the morning, gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs', which for these lyrics, visuals of the music video comes and enforces the lyrics that are being sung at that moment in time. 


- Links between music and visuals

According to Andrew's theory, the links between the music and visuals varies between different genres of music, as well as the tempo of music and different beats. For example, in the rock music genre, we can see a band in a performance space with the musical instruments (guitars, drums etc.) performing the track, which corresponds to the music being played. 

   

In the music video 'Killing In the Name' by Rage against the Machine, this feature is easily identified throughout the whole. On a plus note, the people in the audience and the band themselves are swaying their heads, as well as their arms to the beat of the music. The link between the music and the visuals in this picture is very well constructed together.


- Genre Characteristics

The genre characteristics of a music videos depends on the particular genre. For example, in a rap/hip-hop video, you would expect the artist(s) to have characteristics, e.g. they would wear jewellery, hoodies and urban clothing, as well as be associated with drugs/money, women, cars, guns and possibly dangerous dogs.
An example of this is shown in 'Buzzin' by Mann ft 50 Cent. On the left, we see 50 Cent donning the urban clothing, the jewellery and money, as well as the car in the background; and on the right, we see a woman, who is shown in the video dancing sexually to get attention from men, and once again, we see a modernised car in the background, which could suggest wealth.


- Notions of looking (voyeurism)


Notions of looking plays on the idea of gaze and the way someone in particular is seen. In many music videos, we see the artist looking directly in the camera, focusing on us (the audience). An example of this is voyeurism, which focuses on the treatment of women, as well as the system of looking.

  
A good example of this is 'I Know You Want Me' by American rapper Pitbull. As shown in these 3 shots, voyeurism is present due to the fact that the women are presented as sex objects and the audience's gaze is for pleasure and to attract a large male audience. We can tell this by their limited amount of clothes, sexy dances and gestures, such as the 'come here' movement of the fingers, which draws the audience into the action.


- Demands of the record label

Andrew Goodwin states in his theory that the demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close-ups of the artist and they may develop motifs, which will incur in all their work. In most music videos, the artist of the song is usually the protagonist of the music video, which means that they will feature more in the clip than anyone else e.g. the backing artist etc.

 In the music video for 'Sex on Fire' by the Kings Of Leon,the lead singer is predominantly featured in almost every single camera shot of the music video, whereas the rest of the band features every now and again, especially in the chorus. Because the lead singer is the most recognisable member of the band, as shown clearly in the music video, this will appeal to the bands target audience.


- Intertextual references

Some music videos may feature intertextual references, meaning the presence of other texts from other music videos, TV shows, films etc. 

A clear example of this is shown in the Eminem video for 'Just Lose It':

Near Left:
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

Far Left:
Eminem - Just Lose It



The 'Just Lose It' video shows intertextual reference to the music video 'Billie Jean' due to when Michael Jackson walks along the pavement in his video, it lights up. This shows that Eminem was inspired by the 'Billie Jean' video and wanted to include his own, more humorous and mimicked side to the scene of the clip.
Another example of an intertextual reference is the MC Hammer scene that Eminem has constructed in the music video. We can tell this by the clothing he wears, which strangely enough looks like the clothing that MC Hammer wore in his video for 'U Can't Touch This'. The backing dancers are also present in 'Just Lose It' which is similar to the MC Hammer clip. Once again, this scene has a humorous side to it, as the lyrics have changed in 'Just Lose it' from 'Stop......Hammertime' to 'Stop......Pajama Time'.


Conclusion:

I believe that the Andrew Goodwin theory of music videos works really well and I believe I can include these features in my own music video construction. However, not all music videos include every single feature of Andrew Goodwin, but they all must include at least one of these features (maybe 2) to become successful worldwide.