Andrew Goodwin's theory on music videos

1. Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos
1) A relationship between lyrics and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify and contradict
the lyrics- Goodwin noticed that a music videos visuals either have complete
similarity or direct contrast to the lyrics of the song. When linking this to my music
video I believed we conformed to this theory of having complete similarity with the
visuals and the lyrics, this is because the emotions portrayed within the song were
showed through the facial expressions and body language of the protagonist.
2) Thought beats: Seeing the sounds (the relationship between the music and the
visuals which illustrate, amplify and contradict the music). Goodwin identified that
the visuals within a music video may have been edited in time to the lyrics/ change
of pace in the song. He also stated that these visuals are commonly repeated within
a chorus to emphasise the repetition in the lyrics and beat. In my opinion we also
conformed to this aspect, this is because at the end of our music video we slow the
last shot down to contradict with the upbeat tune which is being played. We also
slowed down a hair shot so it plays in very slow motion, this amplifies the tune which
is playing along it.
3) Genre related style and iconography present- Goodwin recognises that most artists
have a tendency to repeat certain actions within their music video in order to
establish it as their trademark, therefore making the song more recognisable due to
it occurring more often. This represents the style of the music which the artist is
representing and is a marketing strategy. Genre is also shown by the location. In my
music video we repeated the Polaroid effects a variety of times, which viewers
picked up on and noticed how unique they were, in my opinion this is our unique
part of the music video. It also represents the indie genre which we were trying to
achieve due to the location we are in.
4) Multiple close-ups of the main artist: The creation of a star image to promote a
recognisable brand image. - Goodwin recognised that it was common of record
labels to use close-ups of the artist in order to promote sales/singles. In my opinion
we definitely conformed to this as we wanted to achieve a pop look combined with
indie, therefore many of our shots were close-ups and mid shots when filming the
‘studio’ shots, this made ‘Savannah’ the face of her music, which helped promote
our record label and herself.
5) Voyeurism often plays a major part in music videos, especially in relation to females-
Goodwin recognised that many music videos often contained voyeuristic angles of
women in order to entice a male audience to both the song itself and the artist. We
didn’t conform to this aspect as ‘Savannah’ played an independent protagonist, who
was representing herself throughout the music video, therefore it wasn’t necessary
to add this into the video.
6) Intertextual references to other media texts may be present. – Goodwin stated that
it is not uncommon to recognise either the visuals or lyrics of a song to be a direct
reference to another media text. This can be used to engage the audience. However,

2. we did not add this into our music video as out main focus was how we portrayed
the new upcoming artist.