1) The document analyzes Ariana Grande's "Side to Side" music video using Andrew Goodwin's theory of six common characteristics of music videos. These include demonstrating genre, relating lyrics to visuals, relating music to visuals, including close-ups of artists, referencing notions of looking, and making intertextual references. 2) The music video fits with Goodwin's first five characteristics - it demonstrates a typical pop genre, relates lyrics about dancing to visuals of biking and dancing, uses tone and pacing of visuals to match the music, includes many close-ups of Ariana and dancers, and treats the female body in a voyeuristic way. 3) The document also analy

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Music Video Analysis using Goodwin’s Theory
Ariana Grande ft Nicki Minaj- Side to Side;
Andrew Goodwin has a 6 ways that he thinks should feature in a music video this is through
these 6 steps;
1. Music videos demonstrates genre characteristics
2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals, the lyrics are represented with images.
3. There us a relationship between music and visuals, the tone and atmosphere of the
visuals reflects that of the music.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the
artists may develop motifs which recur across their work.
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors,
stages etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos
etc.)
Using Goodwin’s 6 features of a music video Ariana’s fits with 1-5. In the
music video it demonstrates genre characteristics that it’s a typical girl
artist with a lot of girl dancers around her and we
have constant close-ups of Ariana and her dancers.
This is to show how little clothes they are wearing and that the
clothes they are wearing is fitness based which is why they are on
bikes and then doing some sort of fitness routine in a changing room.
By having these close-ups it means we can see expressions which sets the mood of the video
and it also means that we are capable of feeling what she is singing about.
This particular video links Number 1 and 5 together due to there being a frequent reference
to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic
treatment of the female body. There are a lot of
panning and tilting shots of Ariana’s body and her
dancer’s body. It links with The Male Gaze as it’s a
way to attract the male audience and focuses on the
girls bodies which the men want to see there curves and them in little clothing. In the
screenshot on the left you can see Ariana ‘whipping’ one of her dances in a seductive way
which could almost be used to ‘tease’ those men who are watching that she isn’t an
innocent girl.
The relationship between the lyrics and visuals match as she is singing
about going side to side as she is going side to side on a bike and then
when there is the rap with Nicki Minaj, they are both surrounded by
boys who are making movements like robots as if they are controlling

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them. The way she is sat very provocatively in the image on the right with the man around
her shows her dominance that she does have control of the situation as she is the main
focus in this particular establishing shot.
Demands of a record label will include the need for lots
of close-ups of the artist that may develop motifs which
reoccur across their work. In the video there a lot of
slow cuts of just ariana singing and there is a fair
amount of the video where we are just looking at her
face. However she is always wearing something
different in the close-ups and the way she is angled
towards the camera shows of her beauty and also allows us to see her
passion when singing.
In the video there is a relationship between the music, visuals, tone, and atmosphere which
reflects on the music. When the music is fast so are the cuts and it tends to be a general
singing pace as well where it isn’t to slow but its not as fast as a rap. As soon as the music
starts to slow down so does the singing and the editing due to wanting to be able to
contrast the fast and the slow parts to create a mood. The dancers are always dancing on
the beat and its very effective when this happens as everything flows smoothly.
5 ways on how to analyse a music video;
He also has 5 ways to analyse a video and he does this using these five steps-
1. Thought beats- where you ‘see’ in the sound=
- The structure of the song is very fun and upbeat throughout the whole video and
you always feel happy when listening to it, due to the tempo being fast and the
way the words influence that beat creates an exciting atmosphere.
- Ariana’s voice is very unique due to her ability to sing very high and for a very
long time. Although she can sing very high she is also able to sing low aswell
however not as deep or as low as man!
- If you listen to the lyrics this song is about what people are telling her to do
about this man shes been with or likes and the wa she is then peforming it to us
in a way that she is exercising and wearing little thinsg to either grab his
attention or show him what he’s missing out on. It’s a story in a way but not
showing you the story through the video you have to listen to the words and
then wtach the video to show how she wants you to interprete the video.
2. Narrative and Performance=

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- There’s a lot of repeating in this video and taking shots from before and using
them again when the chorus comes on so that we can see what message we are
trying to understand. Artists don’t tend to give you the story you have to have a
guess and hope you’ve got the gist of the song. Her performance in this video is
very strong as she is always in the majority of all the shots and you are always
seeing her perform and lip syncing her song. The narrative isn’t very clear due a
lot of girls being on bikes and exercising through the video when the song is
about a boy and her feelings towards him and what she is going to do.
3. The star image=
- Ariana is represented as being a strong independent women who enjoys to be
with her girls who don’t cause her any issues rather than being hooked up on a
man. A lot of her videos she is by herself and this tells us that she is a women
who prefers to be on her own yet when people cross her path she will
experiment but she tends to end up on her own due to preference. The things
she wears is very little which conveys her confidence as not a lot of women have
a lot of their body on show 24/7.
4. Relation of visuals to the song=
- Illustrate; the images that are used that match the lyrics I feel the main one is
about the “you’ve got me walking side to side” and how they are going side to
side on the bike. A lot of the other words don’t relate to the images that we see
in the video.
- Amplify; in the video we have drummed into our head that when we hear “boy
got me walking side to side” we see Ariana and her girls on the bikes riding them
and dancing. They do this so that when people watch the video once when they
next see the video or just hear the song you will remember what you saw as it
was repeated so many times. By doing this its so that you remember what is in
the video
- Disjuncture; I don’t personally think that the video does this.
5. Technical Aspects;
- In this music video there are a lot of slow and fast edits depending on the tempo
of the song which makes it effective as it sets an idea of how they want you to
watch the video. The cuts went with the beat which made it more entertaining to
watch as everything is in sync. There wasn’t any special effects there was just
general camera movement and editing as there wasn’t a lot of people moving
from location to location you could tell that they were in different places at
different times. The mise-en-scene was effective due to everyone wearing the
same things when they were in the same places and when they moved location
there outfits changed. They also chose basic locations so that what they were
doing looked more exciting than it would of if they were in a fancy location.
What I found they did which was effective with lighting and colour is when the

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dances were in bright clothing they made the lights blue which then made the
colours look more illuminous and bold.