Andrew Goodwin. Key Features of Music Videos

•Andrew Goodwin in Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) has identified the following features of music videos:

Key features of Music Videos

1.Goodwin maintains Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.

e.g. stage performance in a heavy metal pop video,

dance routine for boy/girl band).

These genres are different types of music videos such as heavy metal

In heavy metal the costume is often leather and in term of Mise-en-scene the editing of their videos are often fast and use a lot of close up of the guitarist, singer and drummer.

An example of a band like this would be Iron Maiden. Here is a performance of them in concert performing "Hallowed By Thy Name"

On the other hand another genre would be boy bands who have different types of members which appeal to different types of audience yet their videos are also fast paced but their clothing isn't always the same. In addition they have dance routines included and an example of this would be  N - Sync's "It's gotta be me"

Here's their music video with them dancing in unison.

There is a relationship between Visuals and Song

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

Here's a music video which Illustrates the actual words of the music video and shows a ship actually being built. So as you can see it's a direct reflection of what their music is about, in turn letting the visuals help and blend with the music in the background.

Amplify - This is where the images of the music video do not contradict the lyrics but add additional meanings not necessarily intended by the song.

Here's a music video which Amplify's the meaning of their video. "Man in the Mirror" does this by using showing visual footage of the negatives around of the world that could be avoided if we looked at ourselves and changed our ways.

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

Here's a music video which Ignore's the meaning of their music video as most of their visual footage has nothing to do with what makes someone beautiful. It's literally just a video of One direction on a beach singing towards the camera.

The demands or record labels will include the demand of close up's of the artist in this process artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.

Here's an example of a close up of an artist in a music video. This is a close up of the artist "Rihanna" and as you can see the close up's are often made to make the artist look attractive and appealing for it's audience.

On the other hand an example of a band which developed a quite sad/intense emotional motif would be the band "Linkin Park" where all their videos are alike in terms of its Mise-en-scene and it's music. You can see this in their video effects where their videos look unsaturated in colour and dark as well as gloomy.

Intertextual  Reference 

This is another key feature in some pop music videos where they reference something pre-existing and incorporate it into their music video. For example in the song " She walks like Rihanna" by the Wanted they created a parody which made fun of older boy bands and their music videos. They did this by copying the other boy bands concepts and presenting them as unsuitable ideas for a music videos towards their manager who in relation to making fun of is a women not wearing suitable clothes that a manager would.

Here is their music video whereby they imitated Nsync, Take that and Backstreet boys concepts.

Here are pictures of the concepts which The Wanted have referenced within their music videos.

As you can see The Wanted had used a intertextual reference by taking the other bands concept and using it in their own music video for "She walks like Rihanna" such as the puppet idea, white clothes and the long coats and singing in the rain. However the inter textual relationship can also be related to Tv and films not just music videos.

Reference to the notion of looking

This is when there is frequent  reference to the notion of looking i.e. screens within screens, telescopes, mirrors etc.

The song "You belong with me" uses windows to express a notion of looking and we see this in the music video when the two characters communicate via notepads through the windows of their rooms.

                                          

Bruno Mars "The Lazy Song" also proposes a notion of looking as at the beginning of the song we see them set up the camera. Bruno Mars uses his hands to make it look as though we are the camera he set up facing them and recording them.

Some notion of looking, look from a mens perspective showing the male gaze. for example in Shikaras song "Can't remember to forget you" the camera focuses on the female artist through a sexual perspective which the men desire.

Narrative & Performance

Goodwin says Music Videos should have coherent repeatability. Narrative and performance work hand in hand. It makes it easier for the audience to watch over and over without losing interest.

Goodwin refers to the artist acting as both narrator & participant. He says this helps to increase the authenticity.

However, the lip sync and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. The audience need to believe this is real.

An example of a narrative performance music video would be Michael Jackson's "Beat It" wehre he is telling a story yet is also a part of it.

In the same way the song "Grenade" is told by Bruno Mars with Bruno Mars included in the story.

In the song "Hot or Cold" Katy Perry also sings about the story and is included in it showing narrative performance towards the music video.