Andrew Goodwin theory

Andrew Goodwin's theory:

Andrew Goodwin is a man who has thought of a theory about the relationship between the music video and the lyrics. In Goodwin's book “ Dancing in the distraction factory: Music television and popular culture” he says what a music video always has and the relationship of the video and lyrics. These features are:

The relationship between the song and video  shown in the music video which amplifies, illustrates and contradicts the lyrics.

The music video would have a  genre which also includes certain features that the genre would have e.g. RnB you would expect to see baggy clothing.

Also the record company s usually include a lot of close ups in the artists music videos so that the audience feels more closer to the artist.

Intertexual  references are made in quite a few media text such as films, TV shows or music videos and are usually for the more humorous side/parody side, which then keeps the audience entertained.

Voyeurism is quite popular when it comes to music videos it can be used as just looking at the camera, but its mainly used for exposing women and making them look like sexual objects for the viewing pleasure, mainly for males.



Illustrating

Illustrating is when the video shows exactly what the lyrics are saying. Illustrating can also be seen in a narrative form.

A example of illustrating would be "Friday". In this music video the visuals show exactly what the lyrics have just said, such as at 0:29 the lyrics says "down to bus stop" and the visuals show her at the bus stop. Another example of illustrating would be at 1:15, the video shows exactly what the lyrics are saying which is "cruising on the highway" and shortly after that she points towards the audience at 1:16 making the audience become more engaged with the music video. This is a very good example of illustrating as through out the whole video she is pretty much showing what the lyrics are saying. An illustrating music video can become boring for the audience though as they are having the same thing repeated twice but in different ways. It can be interactive, but it mainly can come across boring and this doesn't help promote the artist in a good way. At 3:08 we here the lyrics "partying" and in the visuals we see a group of teenagers at a party, what makes this more of an illustrative video is that the characters costumes are actually what you would expect to see at a party.

Amplifying

Amplification is used so that the audience is able to feel the mood of the song E.g. If the video visuals show violence and anger the audience is meant to feel the emotions of anger.

This here is a example of amplification as the lyrics, instruments and visuals to the music video all have the same mood which is anger,pain and also has the feeling of energy. At 1:33 when the tempo of the song becomes more louder and faster which shows more aggression the visuals in the music video shows the destruction of her home, as in objects falling of walls and smashing. Also the body language of the band at 1:52 also shows the mood of the song as they are seen as jumping, head banging and swinging their instruments around themselves. At 2:12 the shot of the drummer gives of the feeling of anger and pain, as he is hitting the drums quite hard and his facial expression has a sad and angry look. Also in this music video it shows what sort of band they are and what music genre they focus around as when it comes to on of the band members 1:04 the drummer exaggerates his body language quite a bit and looks like he is feeling the music that he is playing and also this sort of body movement would be associated with the rock genre as in other parts of the video there is head banging 1:22. The band members are singing about violence in a relationship and I think they portray it quite well as in the video at 1:35 the visuals show plates smashing and their truly showing what its like to be in a relationship like that by destroying the settings in a very powerful way making visuals of the music video be more in the audience faces, so that they can decide for themselves if its a right or wrong thing to have. Also while the destruction is happening in the video we see a woman in the centre of it all 2:43 and from the camera language it connotes that all the destruction of her home as already happened but,when ever she goes into a room the past events that took place in that room are still there and are haunting her. The band creates a very exaggerated music video, but I think this is a good thing as it makes the music video more memorable and also it sticks in the audiences mind more as it comes across as being in your face a lot.

Contradicting
Contradicting music videos go against the song which is when the video visuals have no relationship towards the lyrics.

This example here is a very good example of a contradicting music video as the visuals show a baby being tortured by demons having a miserable and upsetting tone to it,while the music is quite up beat and jolly. Without the audience such as at 1:23 not watching the video and just listening to it they would expect the video to show more happy visuals instead of a baby being tortured by demons. Also at 2:00 the lyrics say " crawling on your knees" and the visuals show a women carrying the baby, this connotes that this is a contradicting music video and can slightly confuse to the audience if they dont watch the song and the visuals. The video itself makes the audience begin to feel upset and sympathy towards the baby ignoring the actual beat to the song and paying more attention to the visuals as when the baby starts to be tortured in its crib 1:22. Another part of the video that contradicts would be at 2:17 where the lyrics say " we like to watch you laughing" and the visuals shows the baby distressed and crying. Also right at the beginning at 0:00-1:00 in the  music video it misleads the audience into thinking its going to be about space as there is an astronaut voice-over, and then visuals of a child like show appears 1:05 and then finally leads into the child being terrorised by demons. All of these elements contradict one another and also the lyrics to the actual song. The costumes in the video also contradict the lyrics and you would imagine in the video that their are kids playing in the street or so as the title of the song is "kids", but instead you get people dressed up in demonic costumes 2:35 this can either make the audience feel uncomfortable or bring them more in to the video and make them ask questions which I think this video has done.

Iconography
Iconography  is when specific image or visuals are associated with a certain matter, such as elements relating to  a certain genre of music or he artist has some sort of clothing which the audience can recognise them by.

This here is an example of iconography as the artist Kanye west has a specific type of clothing which can make his audience recognise him and also can begin to set a trend. At 0:37 we is the first time we see  him wearing shutter shades and through out the rest of the video he wears them. Also this music video doesn't really show the typical RnB music video elements. In this video the only elements that relate to any typical RnB music video would be the clothing at 2:32 where we see him wearing a hoodie and that is usually associated with Rnb/Rap, also the women at 4:03 and the lyrics. At 0:26 we see futuristic machinery which is something you dont really expect when watching a RnB music video as its usually focused around cars,women and money, so this video here shows the RnB genre in a different way which towards the audience could be considered a good thing or a bad thing. Good thing being that artists are looking at different ways to create music videos, bad thing that it might take away what actually makes an RnB music video.

Close-ups
Close ups are usually done of the main artist/band and are demanded by the record labels so that the audience can feel closer to the artist.

In this music video here it shows many different close ups of Gaga wearing different outfits, which the effect being that the audience can be close to her in any way. An example of this would be at 0:21 where we see her wearing futuristic clothing and looking straight at the camera, making the audience feel that she is looking directly at them. Also this close-up at 1:40 shows Gaga facial expression to be in some sort of pain and agony , which then makes her audience feel what she is feeling/ going through. lady Gagas record company probably makes her use a lot of close-ups in her videos as she is a mainstream artist and that she has many different personality's to show, such as  at 4:15 this close up has quite a scary tone to it, showing that to her audience she that she does have a serious side, while at 3:29 it shows her more creative side as she is wearing some strange head dress. The camera language shows many different sides to her such as 6:28 we have a birds eye angle shot, which is something you dont really see in music videos, when focusing on close ups of the artist, but it could connote a few things one of them being how society looks down on her. also the editing to the video such as during the time 3:38-3:50 is quite fast paced, but at the same is still getting shots of her,which connotes that her record company specifically wants it to focus on her, so that she is able to get more publicity.

Voyeurism
Voyeurism is when a female and rarely males are exposed in music videos to help attract more attention and viewers. The video doesn't need to come across sexual but it does need to contain a certain mood to keep the audience watching.

This is a very good example of voyeurism as from the beginning to end it shows women wearing  a small amount of clothing.  At 0:25 we are straight away introduced to women walking around in there underwear which can grab the audiences attention (males) right at that moment so that they continue watching. Also at 1:01 we see a women lying on a bed with a screen behind her making the audience gain extra pleasure from watching it as they are able to watch two things at the same time. Another example of voyeurism would be at 1:24 as the angle of the camera from the artists point of view makes the audience look where the artist is looking creating more enjoyment for the audience as it makes them feel like there in the video. At 1:40 we see a group of females performing in little and tight clothing which is exposing for women and plus it makes them be seen as a sexual object to men. At 1:46 we see the artist looking down on them presenting females as only objects of sexual pleasure and can also make the audience feel like there looking down on them as well also, it can also show how society sees women as in in the video the man is looking down on women which could connote that this is how women are portrayed in society and only seen as an attractive object to look at. At 2:34 both male and female are shown with little clothing for both female and male viewers attention, but still mainly males as through out the whole video it has been women on display and not men. Nearer to the end of the video we are introduced to a male on a couch with three women in their underwear 3:32 this connotes that artist is putting across that men only use women for the sexual gain, as in this shot the three women are laying on top of the man.

Intertexuality

Intertexuality is when one media text refers to another, this can be done though Music videos, TV films.

In this music video here the artist Robbie Williams refers to the film Alice in Wonderland in a present day version. He does this in a variety of ways such as at 0:33 we see the mirror turning black and him heading towards it, just like in the film where she finds a hole and begins to crawl inside it. Through out the whole video Williams is dressed up as the white rabbit from the film, which brings the reference to that film across even more. At 3:40 we see him standing on a table, that in the film is the mad tea party scene. This film reference helps the audience enjoy the music video more as its quite a popular film and seeing it referenced makes audience more engaged towards the music video. Also as this song was released late 2009 this helps the audience to be prepared for the 2010 version of Alice in Wonderland. Also at 4:21 the music video references the film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer replacing the lion head with the rabbits head. At 3:20 we see the artist in the middle of women who are dressed up as bunny rabbits, this could connote that the artist also wanted to get the attention of a male audience rather and female and younger audience as the references to Alice in Wonderland is a child s film. Linking the music video with a very popular film helps the audience become more interested and keen to watch it as, they would like to see if the music video contains certain parts of the film or so. Plus, it also helps promote the artists style of music video and allows them to reference different parts of the film in their own unique way.

0:33 in the music video referencing this
scene from the film

3:40 in the music video compared to
the scene in the film.