Music videos tell
us a lot about the artist and everything about the song that they are trying to
portray. You can find out so much about the artist themselves as the music
video will have the artist in it and it will give the audience a glimpse into
their lives.
Andrew Goodwin came up with a theory in his book, Dancing
in the Distraction Factory (1992). He had 7 points that he believed would be
shown in a music video. They are the following:
• Music videos should demonstrate the
genre characteristics – The music video should have some genre conventions so
that the audience can realise what genre the music will be without even hearing
it.
• There is a relationship between
lyrics & visuals – The music video should have a connection between the
two. For example, if the song lyrics mentions a tiger, you would expect to see
a tiger, or tiger print or something related to a tiger in the video somewhere.
• There is a relationship between music
& visual – The music video should keep in time with the beat and rhythm and
this will be done through the editing of the song. If the song is a fast paced
dance song, then you would expect to see lots of short clips changing quite
often.
• The record label will make the artist
do certain actions 7 the artist may create a motif which may reoccur throughout
all of their music video – Many artist have a motif which will help to make
their music videos recognisable to their fans. Jason Derulo always says his
name before singing in every single video and Pitbull always says “Mr 305” in
all of his songs.
• There will be a close up of a
female/male body – This is done in music videos to show off a person’s body and
it helps the audience to see what the artist would be looking at.
• There will be intertextual references
– There will be references to celebrities, TV shows, films or any other media
objectives that will help to make the video seem more popular and get more
media coverage.
• The video will be either a
performance, a concept or a narrative or a mixture – The song will have
percentages of all 3 of these or one or two of them.
Lawson – Brokenhearted ft. B.o.B
1. The genre for this song is pop and this is shown when
the band is shown to be playing their instruments as this is a convention for a
pop music video. Also they have simple lyrics which is normal for a pop sing as
normally they are repeated lyrics so that it is easier for the audience to
remember.
2. They show the sadness from the singer over the heart
break with the women, which relates to the lyrics and the title
“Brokenhearted”. Also, there are magazine and TV news channels in the video
which talks about the break-up which matches the lyrics & visuals.
3. The shots move in time with the beat of the song, the
scenes only changes when the beat is right.
4. They have done close ups of the artists and the main
signer from the band as the record label would have told them to do this as
this will make the audience feel more bad for them and they will have a better
connection with the artist.
5. The female in the video is shown in a guy’s t-shirt
and she is shown in the bed with just the covers covering her body. This shows
the female body off and this will cause males to watch the music video too.
6. They have used fake TV shows & magazine’s to show
the break up between the singer and the women in the show and this helps to
build up the narrative and shows that the singer is famous as otherwise his
break up wouldn’t be reported on. Also, the instruments that they use have
branding on it so this is an intertextual reference.
7. The music video is narrative – 30% due to the story of
them breaking up and seeing each other again at the end. It is 10% concept as
it is showing the bad effect the media has on a relationship & the video
has a 60% performance as the band are playing their instrument, they are
singing to the camera and B.o.B raps to the camera whilst sitting down.
Miley Cyrus – We can’t stop
1. The genre for
this song is pop, dance and r’n’b. You can see the genre is pop due to the
simple repeated lyrics. It is dance as they are dancing & partying through
the entire music video and the song is r’n’b due to the beat of the song, the
actions that Miley does are actions that rappers would normally do in a video
and also the clothes that she wears.
2. The artist in lying and dancing in a bathroom which
goes with the lyrics “And everyone in line in the bathroom”. Also they are
having a house party which goes with “This is our house” & “we like to
party”
3. When Miley puts her grill on, the music gets more
intense and the music starts when she cuts the ankle tag off & when the
hand gets cut and the pink blood comes out, it is in beat with the song.
4. One of her motifs is to touch and play with her hair,
as she made worldwide news on
5. There are many different closes up of the artist,
Miley Cyrus' body. When she is lying on the bed, she is grinding around on the
bed. Also she is wearing minimum clothing, which is done through the whole
video with all of her difference costumes. When she is doing her lip gloss and
kissing the guy's chest, we are spying on the artist and it's as if we are
watching the artist without them knowing.
6. She uses a beats headphone pill and a eos lip gloss
and she has probably paid for the advertising in the music video and it refers
to the company and helps to give them publicity.
7. The music video has a 50% performance, 10% narrative
& a concept 40% rate.
This blog post & research will help me with my own music video
as I will be able to apply Goodwin’s theory to my own video to make sure my
video is conventional and fits in with the genre. It will also help me to analyse and evaluate what I am inputting into my own filming. This will help me to be more organised as I can be more critical of my own ideas before we start filming.
This post demonstrates a basic understanding of what Goodwin's theory is and this is because you have not explained your points in enough detail.
ReplyDeleteYou have identified the correct theory points, but further examples and explanation is needed for each point, to demonstrate further understanding of the theory.
Finally, you need to expand on the summary that you have included, by considering certain theory elements that you wish to include.