2. How to analyse a music
video?
Goodwin suggests that there are five important aspects
to analysing a music video and these are:
Thought beats – seeing the sound we hear
Narrative and performance
The star image
Relationship between visuals and the song
Technical aspects in the music video
3. Thought beats
This is where the audience see the sound in their head and there are three steps involved here:
First step
This is where we look at the music itself by looking at the structure of the song, by looking at
the verses etc.
Second step
Who’s voice is it? An artist has their own individual voice, which can define them as a singer.
Another theorist has said that the singing voice is an expressive instrument that can make
associations of it’s own. This is called Roland Barthes theory of the Grain of voice.
Third step
This is where the songs can be seen as a story. So therefore we as an audience are following
the story as well as listening to the music.
4. Narrative and
performance
This suggests that the audience do not get the full
narrative of a song and therefore end up making
assumptions about what is being told to us. Goodwin
says that music videos should ignore common narrative
to ensure that the audience don’t get bored and loose
interest after watching it once.
Because the artist is the singer and the narrator it
means that it looks more authentic. Also the lip syncing
and other mimed actions are important in making the
audience think that it is real.
5. Star Image
This is an important part of music videos because
it includes Meta narrative.
This is where there is a big story that shows the
star’s development over time and during the video.
6. Relationship between
music and song
There are three ways that a music video works to promote a song:
Illustrate
This is where the music video uses a set of images to illustrate the meaning
of the lyrics and genre.
Amplify
This is where meanings and effects are constantly shown throughout the
video in order to ‘drum’ the ideas into the audience’s mind.
Disjuncture
This is where the producers completely ignore the meaning of the song when
making it.
7. Technical aspects
This is the basis of the music video as it holds it
together through mise-en-scene, camera work, lighting
etc.
Lighting and colour is used to highlight certain moving
points in a song and is mostly used for dramatic effect.
The mise-en-scene of the music video needs to look
real in order for the audience to be indulged.
Also the editing needs to be done carefully so that the
cutting is in time with the beats of the song.
