2. Analysing music videos
Andrew Goodwin states there are 5 key aspects of
a music video that we as the audience look out
for.
Thought beats – Seeing the sound in your head
Narrative and performance
Star image
Relation of visuals to the song
Technical aspects of the music
3. Thought beats – Seeing the sound in your head
First step- you look into the music and interpret it looking at the
chorus/verses.
Second step- ‘Voice within the song’
The artists can unique and can be identified from the rest and can be
extremely unique.
Third step – the story a artist is telling within their songs. This can make
the artist to be also known as a ‘storyteller’. The music video can be
seen to aid the story that the artist is telling us through the vocals of the
song.
4. Narrative and performance
Goodwin says that we tend to make up our own idea of the
messages being sent in a song from a basic understanding of
what it may actually be about.
Music videos should be of the same standard every time and
narrative and performance work together in order to keep the
audience interested and not bored of a music video.
When the artist acts as the actor/singer as well as the
participant in the music video, this makes the video more
authentic and original. Goodwin believes that miming is still
the most popular thing done in music videos today however it
is in the artists best interest to make it look as real as possible to
the audience.
5. Star image
Star image is a vital aspect of music videos.
Artists want to obviously look unique in order to
stay current and for audiences to remember
them. This star image develops overtime and
plays a big role in the production process of
music videos.
6. Relation of visuals to the
song
There are three ways in videos that are used to
promote a song :
Illustrate, Amplify, Disjuncture.
Music videos set certain images to illustrate the
meaning of their songs lyrics and the genre.
This is where the meaning of the song is
COMPLETLEY ignored.
Repeatability-meanings and effects are
manipulated and constantly reinforced and
shown through video and drummed into our
vision
7. Technical aspects of the music video
Technical aspects hold the music together.(camerawork
, movement ,angle , mis-en-scene editing , sound and special
effects).Speed, camera movement , editing, cutting and
post production are all forms of ‘use of camera’.
Lighting andcolour‘help set the mood’ and adds emphasis
on key/dramatic moments adds extra effect.
Mise-en-scene, the setting is vital! It needs to look realistic in
order to look professional therefore appea
ling to a wider target audience.
Beats - the cuts and beats go with the rhythm in order to
make the video more entertaining. People like music that
sounds good and not like it has just been thrown
altogether.
