The document analyzes how the author's music video for the song "Little Green Bag" compares to Andrew Goodwin's theory of music video conventions and other pop music videos. The author finds that their video challenges several conventions by not including vibrant colors, exotic locations, close-ups of the artist, or voyeuristic portrayals of women. While it shares some similarities with the video for "Uptown Funk" in its urban setting and mature themes, it differs from most pop videos in featuring a narrative rather than fancy visuals and effects. In conclusion, the author argues their video challenges conventional norms and expands what can be considered a valid music video.

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL
MEDIA PRODUCTS?
Joe Bowman

2. DID I STICK TO ANDREW GOODWIN’S
THEORY
Andrew Goodwin theorised that there are several conventions that make the average music
video. These conventions are:
 Music Videos demonstrate their genre characteristics
 There is a relationship between the visuals, the lyrics and music
 Lots of close ups of the artists
 Voyeuristic treatment of the female body
 Intertextual references (i.e. film, television, literature…)
Now I will analyse my product and compare it to this theory to see if my music video
‘qualifies’ with Goodwin’s Theory.

3. GENRE CHARACTERISTICS
My chosen song ‘Little Green Bag’ belongs in the Pop genre of music. The
conventional characteristics of Pop music videos are vibrant colours,
urban culture, exotic locations and family friendly themes. Surprisingly my
music video does not display most of these characteristics as the only
vibrant colour that my video shows is green, it does show some urban
culture (but not a large amount), the video is shot in no exotic locations
and the song definitely does not contain family friendly themes as the
primary theme of the song is drugs. Another difference is that the majority
of pop music videos will use a lot of visuals effects such as CGI and green
screen, but my video uses nothing of the sort showing that mine is a
much more simple pop video. Overall, I can say that my music video does
not clarify with this convention that Goodwin theorises and displays much
more unique genre characteristics.

4. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUALS,
LYRICS AND SONG
This is one of the conventions of this theory that I actually believe that my
product does mirror as there is a strong relationship between the visuals
and the lyrics. This is because the lyrics of the song are about a drug
addict looking for what is implied to be cannabis. In my video, a drug
user/dealer is looking to claim back a bag of drugs that has been stolen
from them by a mysterious figure. My video does not follow the lyrics
directly or word for word, but they both follow a similar theme which is
drug use and loneliness.

5. CLOSE UPS OF ARTIST
Another convention of Music videos that Goodwin theorises is that a
music video will contains a large number of close ups or other shots that
focus on the artist. This is one of the theorised conventions that I believe
my video does not follow at all as there are no shots at all of the artist for
this video. I did not include any shots of the sort as I wanted the viewer to
interpret the lyrics as the main character’s recollection of the music video’s
narrative. This is one more way in which my music video does not follow
Goodwin’s theory.

6. VOYEURISTIC TREATMENT OF WOMEN
One more convention that Andrew Goodwin theorises makes a music
video is the voyeuristic treatment of women. This means that women are
represented in a sexual as erotic way. My video of course featured none of
this as not only was there no treatment of the sort, but there were no
female characters at all therefore it would be impossible for me to follow
this convention.

7. MUSIC VIDEO RESEARCH
Now I will compare my music video to three other music videos in the pop
genre and evaluate mine as to whether it would qualify as a conventional
pop music video or not when put side by side with the others. The three
music videos are:
 Beat It – Michael Jackson
 Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars
 Sugar – Maroon 5

8. BEAT IT – MICHAEL JACKSON
Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ is considered a pop song although it can also
be seen as a rock song, therefore this may affect the way it compares to
my video. When put side to side, they are alike as they both present the
viewer with mature themes, both bright and dark colours and urban
settings. However ‘Beat It’ contains many close ups of the artist,
voyeuristic treatment of women and like I mentioned before; it can also be
seen as a rock music video therefore it displays many Rock music
characteristics.

9. UPTOWN FUNK – MARK RONSON FT.
BRUNO MARS
The second music video is Uptown Funk which was written by Mark
Ronson and performed by Bruno Mars. This music video is the one which I
believe to be the most similar to my music video due to their similarities.
In terms of similarities, they both are set in an urban area with no other
exotic or famous locations featured in the video, the themes are mature in
both videos as in ‘Uptown Funk’ the themes are alcohol use and
delinquency, and the themes in ‘Little Green Bag are theft are drug use
and theft. All of these factors link these two products and support the
argument that my music video can qualify as a Pop music video when
compared to others.

10. SUGAR – MAROON 5
The final video is ‘Sugar’ by Maroon 5 which also has many similarities and
un-similarities to my video. They are alike as they both portray urban culture
and contain vibrant colours. However, they are very unalike as ‘Sugar’ deals
with family friendly themes such as Marriage unlike my music video, and also
features close ups of the artist as well as the video for ‘Sugar’ being filmed in
Los Angeles which is a very exotic location, whereas my video is set on an
urban estate. The biggest difference is that my video features a clear narrative,
however this does not as it is unscripted events that are being improvised
which also show that my video is not sticking to the genre characteristics as
most pop videos will not feature a narrative and will rather opt more for fancy
visual and effects. Overall the videos share similarities but are more or less
very different from each other.

11. IN CONCLUSION
Now that I have evaluated my music video based on both the theory of
Andrew Goodwin and the three other music video that I compared mine
to; I have come to the conclusion that my music video does indeed
challenge the set conventions of what a music video should be that were
put in place by Goodwin’s Theory and other music videos. I believe that I
developed common music video conventions as I introduced newfound
themes to the pop genre such as drug abuse and theft which are not
commonly found in this sort of genre. I challenged the current
conventions by choosing not to include the majority of the theorised
conventions set out by Goodwin such as voyeuristic treatment of women
and close ups of the artist so that I could show that there is not a rule
book that anyone making a music video must abide by, other wise it is not
considered a real product.