Music Video Analysis - Andrew Goodwin Applied

As a group we decided we should do a music video each to save some time, and asked for the others' help when we needed it, or added extra things/edited to each others' powerpoints after we were done.

Hold Me - Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin identifies seven key aspects of music video that we, as the audience, have to look out for:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
2. Thought beats - seeing the sound.
3. Narrative and performance.
4. The star image.
5. Relation of visuals to song.
6. There is often intertextual references to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc.
7. Technical aspects of music videos.

Genre characteristics

A lot of artists tend to repeat actions in their music videos, to establish it as a trademark action, making them recognisable through this recurring action. This shows the style of the artist and it's also a marketing strategy which allows them to be remembered in later years.

Union J are an example of this - they're a stereotypical boyband who are selling a brand and what looks like a fun lifestyle, more than their voices. This means that they are heavily featured in their videos, with lots of close-ups used in camerawork and fading techniques used in editing. These things romanticise the band and make them more appealing to a younger audience.

Thought beats

First step - look at the music itself, take into account the structure of the song.

Second - look at the voice of the song. Voice is unique, can form identification/trademarks which work well with the star image. Roland Barthes theory of the Grain of voice can be related; he sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument, and can make associations.

Third - points out the artist's mode of address. Songs seen as stories, artist the storyteller, music video a two communication device - them telling a story, us listening.

Narrative and performance

Songs do not give us the complete narrative. We only get a gist of the meaning and then make up our own idea of what's being told. Goodwin says music videos should ignore common narrative, as this is important in the role of advertising. Music videos should coherent repeatability, and narrative and performance work hand making it easier for the audience to watch over and over without losing interest. The artist acting as the narrator and participant at the same time helps increase the authenticity but the lip sync and other mimed actions remain the heart of music videos - the audience has to believe it's real.

An example of this is Robbers by The 1975, because this is where there are scenes repeated throughout the video like when the main character/singer is on a small stage with his love interest looking up at him, and this is repeated a few times in the video, perhaps as a way of engraving it in the audience's mind that the character is actually in the band. The video is also about the kind of lifestyle that he actually leads, which shows the reality and authenticity of it.

Star image

The star image is a vital aspect of the music video. Meta narrative which is a big story that describes the development of the star over time, has an important part to play in the music video production process.

Relations of visuals to song

There are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song:

-          Illustrate - Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre; this is the most common.

-          Amplify - This is similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video and drummed into our vision.

-          Disjuncture - This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored.

An example of this is Mirrors by Justin Timberlake, for example the lyrics are "it's like you're my mirror, my mirror staring back at me"and it then stars two people looking at each other through mirrors and also various shots of people looking at each other and then immediately followed by shots of mirrors. This creates a very emotional connection between the lyrics and the visuals as it is revealed to have a meaning.

Intertextual reference

Lana Del Rey's Young and Beautiful is intertextually related to the 2013 film, "The Great Gatsby". It was released on 23 April 2013, and was the fist single from The Great Gatsby: Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film soundtrack. With the lyrics, "will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?" Del Rey adds a hint of desperation which parallels the idiosyncrasies faced by the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel.

Technical Aspects

These hold the music video together through a use of camera work, movement, angle, mise-en-scene, editing sound and special effects. Speed, camera movement, editing, cutting and post production are all forms of use of camera. Lighting and colour help set moods and emphasise key moments of the song for dramatic effect. Mise-en-scene, the setting of music videos, is vital and needs to look authentic to attain professionalism. Beats; music videos use cuts to go with the beat or rhythm making the video more entertaining.