Research on Andrew Goodwin and his theory

1. Andrew Goodwin

2. Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 aspects of music
videos which are:
• Thought beats
• Narrative and performance
• The star image
• Technical aspects
• Relation of visuals to the song

3. Thought Beats
• This is when you can see the sound in your
head
• Firstly, you need to look at the music e.g. the
structure of the song
• Secondly, the voice of the song is very unique
to the artist
• Thirdly, songs can be seen as stories and the
artist is the storyteller. They tell the story and
the audience listen.

4. Narrative and Performance
• Music videos are advertisements as well as
telling the story of the song
• Narrative and performance need to work
together in music videos so that the audience
can watch it over and over again without
losing interest
• The artist acts as both the performer and
narrator which makes the video feel more
authentic

5. Star Image
• This is when the artist is being made the star of
the video and giving them the most screen time
• It is a very important aspect of music videos
• It is used to promote the artist and increase their
profile as well as creating a connection with the
audience
• It can increase their popularity because it means
they are able to set trends
• They must tell a story about the development of
the artist
• This may not be used if the artist is new as they
aren’t known as well

6. Technical Aspects
• Lighting: low key, high key
• Colour: setting
• The colour and lighting set the mood of the key
moments in the song
• Mise-en-scene – costumes, props and setting
• Editing – cuts, transition to the beat, camera
speed and movement
• "Technical aspects hold the music video together
through use of camera work, movement, angle,
mise-en-scene, editing, sound and special
effects."

7. Relation of visuals to the song
• Disjuncture – the meaning of the song is
completely ignored so the images in the video
do not relate in any way
• Amplify – the meaning of the song is
exaggerated through the images
• Illustrate – the meaning of the song is made
clear through video. This is the one that is
most commonly used throughout music
videos