2. Andrew Goodwin identified 5 key aspects
that we as the audiences should look out
for…
• Through beats – seeing the sound
• Narrative and performance
• Relation of visuals to song
• Star image
• Technical aspects of the music video
3. Through beats – seeing the sound
• Firstly you have to look at the music itself. The structure of the song
must be take into account i.e. verse and chorus.
• Secondly, the audience should look at the voice of the song. The
artists voice is individualistic and can therefore from identification or
trademarks that works alongside and contributes to the star image.
Roland Barthes theory of the ‘grain voice’ cab be related to this.
Barthes sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument which is
therefore able to make associations of its own.
• Thirdly, Andrew Goodwin also points that the artists mode of
address can be seen in the song. Songs can be seen as stories and the
artists is the story teller, in turn making the music video a
communication device, where they tell us a story and we as the
audience listens.
4. Narrative and performance
Goodwin proposes that songs fail to give us the complete narrative.
• He states that we only tend to get a basic meaning of the song and then we tend to
make up our own idea of what is being told.
• Goodwin also put forward this idea that music video should coherent repeatability.
That narrative and performance should work systematically together making it easier
for the audience to watch the music video repeatedly without losing interest.
• He also recommended that the artist acting as both the narrator and the
performer/participant helps increase authenticity, however the lip syncing and other
mimed actions is core for the videos as the audience still needs believe that it is real.
5. Relation of visuals to song
There are three ways which music videos work to promote a song…
• Illustrate- Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the
meaning of the lyrics and genre, this is the most common way.
• Amplify- This is similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are
manipulated and constantly shown through the video and heavily
driven into our vision.
• Disjuncture – where the meaning of the video is completely
ignored.
6. Star image
• Star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Meta narratives, which is a story that
describes the development of the star over time has an important part to play in the overall
music video production process.
• Star image is important as it allows artists to stay unique in order to stay current and for
audiences to remember them.
7. Technical aspects
• Goodwin proposed the technical aspects hold the music video
together through camera work, movement, angles, mise-enscene, sound, editing and also special effects.
• Lighting and colour help set the mood of the song and also
emphasize key movements of the song for dramatic effects.
• He expressed that Mise-en-scene i.e. props, costume and setting is
a vital element as it needs to authentic for dramatic effect.
