Common music video theory

1. COMMON MUSIC VIDEO THEORIES

2. • I have decided to research into certain theories which are commonly
relevant and taken into consideration within modern music videos.
These theories sometimes explain or show evidence for why and
how music videos attract certain demographics. The theorists that I
will be focusing on are:
• Andrew Goodwin
• Vladmir Propps
• Roland Barthes

3. ANDREW GOODWIN
When Andrew Goodwin researched into music videos he found that the
audience should focus on 5 main elements of the music video and be
attracted to them. These elements are arguably what make the music
video engaging, and a lot of music videos conducted today hold these
elements because the industry are aware and can see the success it comes
with.
These five key aspects are:
Star image
A relationship between the lyrics and visuals (narrative performance)
Related style and iconography present
Technical Aspects of the music video
Intertextuality

4. STAR IMAGE
• Star image is used commonly in music videos. It allows the audience to
identify the artist, when continuous close up shots of the artists are used
it makes them distinctive for the audience. It then becomes clear who
this artist is.
• Star image can be an important part of conducting a music video as the
audience expect to be introduced to the artist, especially if they are not
yet aware of them or who they are.

5. NARRATIVE AND PERFORMANCE
• Music videos are an important part of a song, some songs wont make
sense until watching the music video. If we were to watch a music video
without the song it would be difficult to understand the meaning of the
music video.
• Andrew Goodwin believes that music videos should not contain separate
actors. The artist who created the music video should be the participant
of both the performance and narrative, which in his opinion, entices
more demographics. Goodwin tends to emphasise his knowledge
stating this is a clever way of marketing, making the video more
interesting for the audience and creating a name for the artist.

6. RELATED STYLE AND ICONOGRAPHY
PRESENT
• Certain genres of music videos tend to have a certain style or
iconography which is followed throughout the music video. For example,
the pop genre tends to follow a bright upbeat theme, based in rich
urban areas because they can be interpreted as being content songs and
therefore enjoyable to listen to. An upbeat pop song which has a dark
theme within the music video would most likely not be watched by fans
of the genre, simply because it would not fit. Andrew Goodwin argued
this and I feel it is something I should take into consideration due to
consistency being important.

7. TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE MUSIC
VIDEO
• Music videos tend to be smooth as technology allows them to be. The
use of camerawork, movement, angle, mise-en-scene, editing and
special effect puts a music video together allowing it to be smooth. As I
have spoke about previously, theme and iconography is an important
part of a music video (according to Goodwin). If dark lighting was used
which did not fit, the music video wouldn’t work. This would switch
attention from being on the artist or protagonist but to the
inconsistency shown.

8. INTERTEXTUALITY
• Intertextual references were another factor highlighted by Goodwin. This
does however play a big part in music videos today. For example, if an
artist depicts references to a yet to be released film, it is likely to start a
word-of-mouth effect as it is yet to be released. Gaining the artist and
song attention.

9. VLADIMIR PROPPS
Vladimir Propps found that characters can be categorised into seven functions,
which he concluded from the 100 tales he analysed.
1. The villain- ruins equilibrium for the hero.
2. The dispatcher- emphasises the hero’s quest and sends him off.
3. The helper- helps the hero during their quest.
4. The prize- the hero deserves this prize all the way throughout the tale but
isn't able to have her because of the evil, he then wins it at the end
defeating the villain.
5. The donor- prepares the hero to fight evil.
6. The hero- resolves anything wrong throughout the tale.
7. The false hero- takes credit for the hero’s actions but is not actually
responsible for them.
Even though Vladimir Propp’s theory links more with films, characters within a
music video may be categorised in one of the above ways; creating a certain
representation about either the song, artist or character.

10. ROLAND BARTHES
• Roland Barthers argued that texts may be open or closed (the meaning
may be made obvious or we might interpret many different
meanings).This is obviously concluded from looking at the narrative.
• These codes are:
• The Hermeneutic Code
• The Enigma/Proairetic Code
• The Symbolic Code
• The Culture Code
• The Semantic Code

11. THE HERMENEUTIC CODE (HER)
Where the narrative avoids telling the truth or letting slip any facts. This is
so the audience guess, making it a mystery and forcing them to continue
watching because they want to find out what the narrative actually means.

12. THE ENIGMA/PROAIRETIC CODE
Essentially showing the audience a cliff hanger, the tension builds and they
are left having to guess what happens next.

13. THE SEMANTIC CODE (SEM)
• The semantic code draws attention in a text which then causes us to
interpret a different meaning or additional story.

14. THE SYMBOLIC CODE (SYM)
Similar to the semantic code, acting on a wider level however. Organising
semantic meaning into a broader and deeper set of meaning.
This tends to be done by new meanings, where it arises from contrasts.

15. THE CULTURAL CODE (REF)
Focusing on the audience’s cultural knowledge and ideology.