Andrew Goodwin Theory

1. Outline Andrew Goodwin’s
music video theory

2. Who is Andrew Goodwin?
• He was born in Hillingdon, Middlesex.
• For 31 years he was a director of music and an organist at Bangor
Cathedral.

3. Goodwin’s theory states that there are 5 key
aspects to a music video;
• Thought through beat – seeing what the lyrics mean in your head
• Relationship between the song and the visuals
• Narrative and performance of the song
• Technical aspects of a music video
• Star Image (protagonist), lots of camera shots making him/her the
centre of attention.

4. Thought through beat
• The first step of this process is to analyse the music structure by
understanding the chorus and verses.
• Then the second step (main voice of the song), the voice of the artist
would be very unique compared to others and will give the person a
form of identification that can be related to the star image or singer.
• The third step would be the story of an artist which he is trying to tell
within his song. It can establish him as a story teller. The music video
can aid this by showing us the video through vocals of the song.

5. Relationship between the visuals and music
• There are 3 ways visuals are used to promote a song;
• - Illustrate, music videos use certain images and shots to
illustrate/explain the meaning of lyrics to their song and the genre.
• - Disjunction, is this situation, the meaning of the song is completely
ignored in the music video.
• - Amplify, repeatability – this is when the image and camera shots are
manipulated and shown repeatedly through the music video and is
drummed into our vision.

6. Relation between the music and visuals
• Andrew believed that a music video can promote a song by the way it
analyses the lyrics. This is shown in many music videos when a
character does exactly what the song says.

7. Narrative and Performance
• Andrew Goodwin believed that it was important for an artist to be
involved in the music video by performing or acting out a role as the
main character or singer. It helps to make the song look more realistic
and also giving the audience a special connecting and good
understanding of the song. A good example of this is..

8. Star image (protagonist)
• Lots of camera shots making him/her the center of attention.
Goodwin referred to the star image a as a very vital aspect of a music
video, they making the music video look more appealing to the
audiences and bring a unique style to the video in the way he/she is
portrayed. The star image is always very unique in the way he/she
presents himself, the costume, moves and appearance. This help to
promote the artist/star’s image in public and also helps to promote
the video and helps to build a public reputation.