2. about the music video
Westlife is a world renowned Irish boy band who were active
from July 1998 to 2012.
The song ‘Uptown Girl’ is one of their most famous songs, who's
original was released by the artist Billy Joel in 1983.
4. What is Goodwin’s Theory?
Goodwin’s Theory is based around 8 main ideas......
•Links between Lyrics and Visuals
•Links between Music and Visuals (Complimentary, Contradiction
or Amplifications.)
•Genre Characteristics/Representation
•Intertextual Reference
•Notions of Looking (Objectification)
•Voyeurism (direct gaze, other people looking at the artist, insight
into artists life, screens and mirrors etc.)
•The demands of the Record Label (Artist representation)
•Is it Performance, Narrative or Concept based?
5. Link between lYRICS AND visuals
When we look at a music video with reference to Goodwin’s Theory, the
theory suggests of links between the Lyrics in the song and the visuals
presented to the viewer. An example of this is in the first 2 lines of the song.
Shane sings “Uptown girl. She’s been living in her uptown world”. As he sings
this, the music video takes this path......
“Uptown Girl”
“She’s been living in her uptown world”
.... this is a direct reference to the first point in Goodwin’s theory
about the lyrics relating to the video, showing a ‘Uptown ‘Girl’ and
a stereotypical ‘Uptown World’.
6. Link between music and visuals
There are two examples of this in the video ‘Uptown Girl’.
The first one being the band bobbing along with the tempo of
the song in the band scenes.....
Another is that when a ‘Uptown Girl’ walks in, and a member
of the band knocks the needle of the record and stops the
song. The static sound created is in time with the transitions
between the different shots.
7. Codes and conventions
The genre of this song would be Teen Pop/Dance Pop, which,
put in broader terms is POP
A common representation is the use of an attractive male to
appeal to the female teen girl population. People such as Justin
Bieber and One Direction are such examples.
8. How is it used in Westlife
Close up shots of the 5 artists
pulling sexy poses are attempts to
appeal to the female population.
This accompanied with the modern
hairstyles each of them are
Also the common
sporting, makes them more likely
convention of teen pop, to achieve heartthrob status.
that of a happy upbeat song
with everyone being happy
is used to effect in the
video as well. They also
use the tale of the hero
going after his true love.
9. Intertextual references?
There is an intertextual to 50’s rock through the use of a 50’s
style american diner. This was a iconic setting, a iconic feature
of 50’s rock, featured in films such as Grease and Footloose.
Films associated with the genre and the 50’s. They also use
other references through the use of the old fashioned record
player.
These are also a
reference to the
original song by
Billy Joel, and his
American boy
image and the
10. Notions of looking
Notions of looking is how the gaze of the viewer and how
someone is seen is played with. According to Goodwin’s
Theory, women are often represented as objects.
In the westlife, the woman is not perceived as a object but as
a desired goal set to achieve. Therefore, they are presuming
the audience is male. This can relate to Goodwin’s theory as
the woman could be betrayed as a object of desire or one to
achieve/obtain.
11. Demands of the music label
It is up to the record label ultimately, what and how the
artists should be represented as. A common method is making
the artist look attractive to appeal to the other sex. In
relation to the Westlife video, this technique is exploited to
appeal to a more female audience, but also to appeal to the
broadest audience without causing offence, as this is the
nature of the Mainstream label. A commercial label’s main goal
is to make money, whereas a indie label would want to
maintain the authenticity of the artists.
12. What concept is it based on?
This can be either Narrative, Performance or Concept based.
Narrative based concepts are based on the video following a story, connecting the dots. It tells the
story of the lyrics and shows the viewer/listener what the song is about. An example of this is
Rihanna - We Found Love
Performance based videos are usually snippets of one or more of the bands live performances
strung together to show off the band. Or can be the band in question performing for the camera.
One example is System of a Down - Chop Suey.
Concept based are usually simple ideas that have been developed that have no relation to the
song. The are usually a collection of camera angles and mise en scene. Deadmau5 - Some Chords is
one such example.
13. Which is it?
The Westlife video os Narrative based. It follows the story of
the Westlife boys fantasying about their ‘Uptown Girl’. It
follow each one of them in particular and tells us their ideal
fantasy. as this is happening they are scrutinised by the ‘Upper
Class’ characters and are sure they will never achieve their
goal.You could say it follow their struggles as ‘Backstreet
Guys’. After the ‘Uptown Girl’ walks in, their story continues
but their now trying to impress the woman which buy the
end, has succeeded, when she leaves with the band.
