My Media Presentation on Alan Goodwin's Theory.

1. Andrew Goodwin’s 6 Features of
Music Videos
Owl City – Fireflies

2. The Theory
Andrew Goodwin suggests 6 features that can be found in music videos;
• 1. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals – the lyrics are represented by
images.
• 2. That there is a relationship between music and visuals so the atmosphere and
tone are reflected visually through the music. There are 3 ways in which the visuals
respond to music; Illustrate – so the video has a set of images to the illustrate the
meaning of the lyrics & genre (very common) Amplify – The meanings of the
songs are added to the visuals, so it adds a layer of meaning. Disjuncture – When
the meaning of the song is completely ignored.
• 3. Another feature is that the music video demonstrates genre characteristics e.g.
Girl bads dancing, live performances for Rock bands.
• 4. Record label demands lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop
motifs that recur throughout all their work.
• 5. The frequent reference to notion looking and voyeuristic treatment of the
female body.
• 6. Intersexual reference, so it may include clips from movies, tv programmes etc.

3. Lyrics & Visuals
“Fireflies”
“slowly”
“as they tried to teach “as Fox trot above my “a disco ball that’s just
me how to dance” head” hanging by a thread”

4. Lyrics & Visuals
(repetition of ‘Thread’) “cause everything is never as it seems”
“please take me away from here”

5. Lyrics & Visuals
“cause I saved a few and “I’d like to make myself
kept them in a jar” believe”
Throughout the video there are loads of visuals representing the lyrics. Usually the
more important words that stand out get represented. The words that he takes
longer to say get shown on the spelling thing. Then the last lines of each verse e.g
“A disco ball that’s hanging by a thread” and “I saved a few and I kept them in a
jar” get represented exactly what the lyrics say they are.

6. Music and Visuals
Illustrate & Amplify
When the artist presses ‘Start’ on the machine the music starts to
play. The start of the song is some small little beats and the lights
amplify with the music, each light turns on with each beat. Then on
the ‘Typo Speak’ it spells “Hello” along with the beats. So its all in
synchronous.

7. Music and Visuals
Illustrate & Amplify
Similar to the start, the artist presses the
button and a downer beat starts to play.
Before the music starts to speed up there is a
whooshing noise and the record player moves
in time with it, complimenting and amplifying it.
For 4 seconds 0:59 - 1:04 the lights amplify with the down-beat of the piano.

8. Musical and Visuals
Illustrate & Amplify
Repeating what happened, before
the chorus starts there’s another
whooshing sound and the globe
spin to amplify it.
When the artist sings “Please take me away
from here” the eyes of this robot blink for each
word he says.

9. Music and Visuals
Illustrate & Amplify
Almost before the song ends, the artist presses ‘Stop’ and all the lights repeat the
process of what they did before but instead switching off to the beats of the
piano (including the Typo Speak that spells goodbye) and the artist places his
head down as if he’s shutting himself off too.

10. Music and Visuals
Illustrate & Amplify
The artist presses this button somewhere around the start of the music
video and the toys in the room start coming to life slowly when he does. So
it illustrates the meaning of the song. The song describes childhood
feelings etc and the toys in the video combine well with the meaning. Its
almost as if its illustrating a dream and escaping reality so all very magical.
However when the song ends, the toys stop, the lights go off and even the
artist himself bends his head down as if to say that the dream is over and
he’s sleeping normally.

11. Music and Visuals
Overview
• The visuals speed up in the chorus and amplify with the music
•The toys come to life rapidly with the beat of the music
•Visuals compliment the music very well.
•Illustration and amplifying work together in this video because the use of
images gives us the meaning of the song but then the visuals add
meaning on it.
•No disjuncture is present. The meaning of the song e.g. childhood,
dreams, magic is seen throughout the music video by being aided with
visuals.

12. Genre Characteristics
The genre of this song (and the Artist) is Electronica and Synthpo. Synthpo was
a style of music developed in the 80’s. The artist is performing the song on a
Lowrey Spinit Organ which was a popular instrument in the 80’s also. The
characteristics are shown with the 80’s toys used throughout the video.

13. Record Label Demands
There are many close-ups of the artist himself from the side of his face. He never addresses
the audience directly, he keeps his eyes closed and just looks down so this could symbolise
that he is in a dream world while sleeping.
He has a very different style to other artists – Just him and his organ/piano (because he’s a
one man band). There is no dancing and not a single swearword used throughout. Just a nice
shuttle music video.

14. Notion to Looking.
It’s a very exciting and
busy video for every
second there is a
different thing to look at.
The video is dominated
by bright lights and toys
that keep the audience
entertained and
interested. There is
always something going
on. There is no
voyeurism – because the
theme of the song is
about childhood
dreams/innocence. No
women are mentioned at
all or are present in the
video.

15. Intertexual Reference
Goodwins final point about intertexual reference isn’t applicable for this music
video. There is no references to any films, tv programmes or any other music
videos. Its just a very random but meaningful video.