Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin is an author of the book “Dancing in the distraction factory” where he talks about music television and cultural theory. In the book he writes about media cosmetics, critical theory and pop music.

Andrew Goodwin

He says that each music video contains 6 things:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in a metal video.)

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (they either illustrate, amplify, contradict)

3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals.

4. 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 reoccur across their work (a visual style)

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking. (screens with screens, telescopes etc and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body)

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos)

Andrew Goodwin

Goodwin came up with the idea that Thought beats are used to construct songs for music videos. A thought beat is

singing the sound in your head and he said that these were developed in step by step processes.

Step 1 – Structuring the song (Chorus, Verses, Hooks)

Step 2 – Voice of the song. Identification with the voice as the singing voice is an expressive instrument.

Step 3 – Mode of address. The song is the story and the artist is the storyteller.

Rihanna “We Found Love”

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics

In pop music videos the shot that is most frequently used is close up shots. These shots are used for many reasons, to engage the audience with the artist, to establish who and the importance of the artist and finally so that the audience are immediately able to make reference between the artist and features of the video.

Pop music videos also contain narrative and the majority of the time and there is a very deep narrative used within this video, however it fits the genre as a common convention of a pop narrative is to contain a love interest character and which supports the stereotypical pop genre conventions.

This video also appears to be a hybrid as it contains a performance feature to the music video. This is conventional for pop music videos as it showcases the artist talent and forces the audience to focus on the actual song/artist for segments of the video as well as the storyline.

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Fasts cuts are often used in many genres of music video, particularly pop, it is used for a series of reasons which improve the viewing experience for the audience. Firstly the fast cuts are in time with the music which keeps the video as lively as the music itself. It helps to show a series of images which could be apart of the storyline or show subliminal messages in a short time prevent the audience from becoming bored of one long scene. Finally it is able to increase the repeatability (which Goodwin says is keys to making a successful music video) of the song as the audience will not be able to see and understand everything that is shown in the short period of time causing them to watch it again. This music video does that successfully as the 5 shots only take up a period of 4 seconds, but because it is also so quick it makes the music video more intriguing because it causes the audience to ask the question of ‘what was that?’ and ‘what does that mean?’.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

“Standing side by side” being the lyric for this visual is very obvious however the use of the wide shot gives the lyric meaning as even though they are literally standing side by side the fact that they are in an isolated, deserted area highlights the idea of unity and partnership.

“Shine a light through an open door” being the lyric for this visual, yet there is no direct correlation this is because the couple are representative of the light, implying that there relationship is full of love and positivity and the couple coming through the door shows how this interpretation could be implied.

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“But I've gotta let it go” being the lyric for this visual is the best way to pair a lyric and a visual in my opinion as not everything is obvious to the audience straight away. So at first playing darts may appear to be fairly random regarding the situation, however the dart is representative of the relationship and the boyfriend which Rihanna’s character has to let go of. The subtle relationship of visuals and lyrics makes the video more appealing as the audience are forced to pay detailed attention to all aspects of the video and as well listening to the song making them unconsciously absorbing the lyrics, compared to if there was no relation.

There is a relationship between the music and

visualsIn this video the relationship between the music and visuals play a heavy role is how the video is as a whole. Each scene is fast cut edited in order to match the main beats of the music. In the first scene these shots are used for the first four main beats which only lasts 6 seconds. This has been done to create an atmosphere with scenes as the song would make as thought it were playing in a party. This up tempo beat and the use of fast cuts makes the audience feel involved with the music and add a lively fun element to the music video. The visuals to a song are meant to illustrate, amplify or disjuncture and this music video is definitely amplified.

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

reoccur across their work.

The use of the close ups within this music video are key, because they are not used as often as typical pop music videos are used however each close up used is fairly significant as they portray the artist in a different character role and emotion where it is relevant to the song and the narrative involved with the music video. The fact that it captures Rihanna is different emotions such as misery/pain and joy, makes her seem more relatable and realistic to the audience as they perceive her to be a normal person just like them. Also the close ups create a connection between the audience and the artist making the artist more likeable.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking.

The notion of looking is used within this music video in order to ultimately make

the audience feel as though they are more involved. This is because the

voyeurism allows the audience to see more than what they may feel is being shown to them, giving them an inside

look, also this makes the audience feels as though they are getting more

information towards the storyline and in a sense making the audience more

understanding.

There is often intertextual reference

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The intertextual reference within this music video is showing all aspects of young British drug culture. This video captures, how it affects relationships and behaviour, the physical acts of drug taking and their view. This video is able to capture the extreme passion contrasting with the extreme hate within the music video. It shows the spontaneous and wild behaviour that is stereotypically adopted with people of this type. It illustrates the different forms and foolish ways to take drugs which is presented as fun. Most importantly it shows how selfish these people are as the video is mainly revolved around the couple however it features clips of real life, which implies how little their lives are affected by other social factors. It think this video over dramatises the culture and presents it in such messy way to show that it is a messy and uncontrollable lifestyle.