Music video analysisUsing Andrew Goodwin’s

Theory

Andrew Goodwin’s 7 key features of a music video• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos,

dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.

(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).• There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual

reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). • The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist

and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).• There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages,

etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.• The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style)• There are often intertextual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music videos etc.).

I will link each other these areas to 3 music videos and explain where they are used in each.

Nickelback - Savin' Me "Savin' Me" is a song written by the Canadian band Nickelback and was released as a single in 2006. The song is a rock song and features acoustic/drums in the music.

Nickelback are well know for making rock songs and they have a particular style which “Savin' Me“ follows. The music video for “Savin' Me“ is different to other Nickelback music videos because it include very little of the band themselves and focus mainly on telling a story apposed to the bad themselves.

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).Goodwin’s theory states that each genre of music has it own characteristics for their music videos, meaning that all pop music videos will contain certain things and all country music videos will contain others. “Savin' Me” is a rock video and thus contains certain conventions that all rock music videos contain.The first convention that “Savin' Me” follows as a rock video is that the artist/band is featured preforming throughout the video. In “Savin' Me” you can see Nickelback preforming several times however in all of the clips only the main singer is preforming and the other members of the band are simply standing/sitting with blank expressions on their faces often staring into blank spaces.

The second convention it follows is that the set of the video is dark or has lots of shadows, “Savin' Me” follows this convention as the shots of the band are filmed in a dark, dirty and derelict looking apartment which suits the style of the lyrics, it is also appealing to the target audience of the music.

Another common convention for this type of music video is a long or extended instrumental section which breaks up the lyrics but still keeps the song interesting for the listener. Nickelback’s “Savin’ Me” includes an instrumental which allows the person watching the video to understand the story better because they are not having to concentrate on the lyrics of the song.

In rock songs the music videos are often either of the band preforming the song live for an audience or of a story that the video tells which is often tied into the lyrics of the song. Nickelback often have a story behind their videos and “Savin’ Me” is no different telling a short yet interesting story which keeps the watcher or listener interested for the duration of the song. Another convention that rock music videos

generally follow is the band is normally in dull clothing which doesn’t draw too much attention to them, meaning you focus mainly on their faces and not their outfit. In “Savin’ Me” the main singer is wearing a plain brown jumper and has lots of close-ups on his face.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).The lyrics of “Savin’ Me” are represented by the music video which go with them. The song itself is about a man realising how he could die at any time and how he wouldn't go to haven because he hasn’t lived his life as a good person, he is trying to ask god to help him live a good life so he can go to heaven when he dies. The video tells a slightly different story however it links in to the story in a few ways. The Video tells the story of a man who’s life is saved and he realises that he could die and time and then starts seeing timers above peoples heads that are counting down, he then realises that these timers represent how long someone has left to live and notices that a woman who was about to get into her cars timers was dropping rapidly so he pulls her away and saves her life passing the ability to see the timers on to her.

I think theses stories are connected because they both show how a man nearly dies and changes his actions because of it, the male characters in both stories also realise that they could die at any minute and change because of it.

I think theses stories are connected because they both show how a man nearly dies and changes his actions because of it, the male characters in both stories also realise that they could die at any minute and change because of it.

The music video for “Savin’ Me” has a direct relationship to the music or song itself, the atmosphere reflect the music’s darker tone. The music video includes lots of shots which are dull and often only grey and white with other dull colours and often features dark or shaded areas of the city to emphasise this.

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

“Savin’ Me” features several close ups on the lead singer of Nickelback Chad Kroeger, this is due to demands of the record label wanting to have the band and specifically Chad as the main singer to help sell the band and make more money.

Nickelback also has several motifs which they use in most of their music videos. Usually the band are in simple bland clothing, often a simple plain t-shirt which isn’t a bright colour and black or blue jeans. Another thing that is often seen in Nickelback music videos is a close up of Chad Kroeger singing the chorus of that song.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.The music video for “Savin’ Me” features several shots which look like they have been taken from CCTV cameras, this refers to Goodwin's 5th theory, which explains that music videos often reference the notion of looking. Several of these shots are used at the begging to establish the setting of the video which is a dull city with little colour.

The camera shots that look like they have been taken from CCTV cameras makes us feel we are watching it live and thus feel closer to the band, song and story that the video is telling which helps to sell the album and make more money.

The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style)

Nickelback also has several motifs which they use in most of their music videos. Usually the band are in simple bland clothing, often a simple plain t-shirt which isn’t a bright colour and black or blue jeans. Another thing that is often seen in Nickelback music videos is a close up of Chad Kroeger singing the chorus of that song.

There are often intertextual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music videos etc.).

The music video for “Savin’ Me” has several intertextual references including the film “In time” Which tells the story of a world where time is currency, one you run out of time you die, you can earn time by working but have to spend time on things like food, water and other essentials. Everyone looks as if they are 25 because of anti aging technology which means that people can live for longer and more youthful. This obviously ties in with the theme of the “Savin’ Me” theme due to the fact that in both we re given a set amount of time to live however people can extend that by saving people in “Savin’ Me” and by working in InTime. I the movie InTime the people all have a digital clock style count down clock which is very similar to the timers people have in the video “Savin’ Me” which leads me to believe it is directly referencing the movie. The two

different countdown timers in

Savin’ Me and InTime.

Panic! At The Disco - lying is the most fun“Lying is the most fun" is a song written by the American band Panic At The Disco. It was released as part of the album “A Fever You Can't Sweat Out” which came out in 2005. The song is an Indi-rock song.

Panic At The Disco are well know for making several songs and they have a tendency to have narrative based music videos which make there songs feel like they have meaning to them.

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).Goodwin's theory tells us that each genre of music has specific conventions, as we are using a song from the indie genre I will be analysing these conventions within the video.

One of the main conventions is for indie bands to be preforming live on stage or to have a narrative if the band is preforming live then it shows us that the band is new and quirky which relates to the genre. However if a narrative is used then it shows us that the song is designed to tell a story and is a great way to make it stand out from other songs.

Another convention used in the indie genre is that the people featuring in the video are wearing clothing that makes them stand out from the crowd, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are wearing bright clothing however it does mean that they are wearing clothing you wouldn't expect to see in everyday life.

Indie music videos often contain random things which are designed to make people re-watch the video after they have seen it once, this is deliberately done as it keeps people interested throughout the video.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).The lyrics of “lying is the most fun” are related to the visuals of the music video in several ways, they tell the story of a man whose girlfriend cheated on him, he's asking if it was worth it to cheat on him because he believes she'll never have someone better than him and if the person he cheated on him was worth losing him over.

The video tells the story of a couple and how she saves him by taking him into her tank and then how she finds him dead after he discovers she cheated, then she kills herself because she cant deal with what she has done, then the paramedics arrive and save them both and free them together and then we see them kissing and come back to life.

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

The music video of “Lying is the most fun” doesn’t follow this convention as Goodwin thought it should as there are no close up shots of the artist in the video. In fact the video for “Lying is the most fun” takes this a step further and doesn’t actually include the artist at all, this could be don’t deliberately as it could be seen as a counter convention to make the video stand put from others in the same genre which could attract audiences from other genres.

The video does however contains many close-up’s of actors who are in the video, this could be deliberate so they don’t go against the convention completely as this is a risk which could cause them several issues. I think the actors have been chosen to be in the close up shots because they represent the story easily whilst keeping the focus on the story and not the music.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

The music video for the song “Lying is the most fun” references the notion of looking in several ways, the main being water and reflections in water. The music video includes several people who's heads are trapped in fish tanks, this shows interesting reflections in some cases. Water is also used near the beginning of the video when it is spilt on the ground and shows the reflection of the woman's legs approaching (see below).

I think the video follows this convention as it makes the video more interesting and re-watchable. I also think the female body is used in this shot to attract male viewers as the legs are suggestive and attractive especially as the woman bends over to pick up the fish in the pool.

The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style)Panic! At the disco are well known for having interesting music videos as well as having a variety of music genres. The videos from Panic! At the disco usually have several random things, for example the video for “Build god, then we’ll talk” contains lots of random elements which are comedic but also creepy and make the watcher uneasy or laugh.

Panic! At the disco also have a motif of not appearing in there videos or if they do they are almost always characters in a story they are trying to tell, this could be because they do not like performance based videos or it could be a stylistic choice to make the watcher feel that each time they see them in a different situation they see a new side to them which keeps them interesting and fresh.

There are often intertextual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music videos etc.).Panic! At the disco are well known for having interesting music videos as well as having a variety of music genres. It's about a man whose girlfriend cheated on him, he's asking if it was worth it to cheat on him because he believes she'll never have someone better than him and if the person he cheated on him was worth losing him over.

Natalie Portman says the words "Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off, but it's better if you do." in the movie "Closer” this is the full title of the song, Panic! At the disco could have chosen this in order to make a reference to the movie. The movie includes the characters all sleeping with other members of the cast cheating on each other which is what the story of both the song and the lyrics are.

Artic monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent

“Fluorescent Adolescent " is a song written by the British band from Sheffield the Arctic monkeys. It was released as single in 2007. The song is an Indi-rock song.

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).Goodwin's theory tells us that each genre of music has specific conventions, as we are using a song from the indie genre I will be analysing these conventions within the video for the song florescent adolescent.

The main conventions for indie bands is for the band themselves to be preforming live on stage rather than a studio recoding or to have a narrative if the band is preforming live then it shows us that the band is modern and quirky which relates to the genre. However if a narrative is used then it shows us that the song is designed to tell a story and is a great way to make it stand out from other songs whilst keeping within the conventions of that genre.

Another convention used in the indie genre is that the people featuring in the video are wearing clothing that makes them stand out from the crowd, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are wearing bright clothing however it does mean that they are wearing clothing or in this case makeup you wouldn't expect to see in everyday life. The clowns in the video for the song “florescent adolescent” shows us that the music video has been designed to be re-watchable and interesting whilst.