This document summarizes some key theories about music videos put forth by Goodwin and Mulvey: 1. Music videos demonstrate characteristics of different genres through visual elements like luxury cars in rap videos and abstract imagery in alternative videos. 2. There is often a relationship between the lyrics and visuals of a music video, though this relationship can sometimes be questionable. 3. The pace and editing of music videos is usually linked to the pace of the song to help the video flow well. It then provides some examples to illustrate these theories.

1. GOODWIN AND
MULVEY MUSIC
VIDEO THEORIES.
By Joanne Oni-Awoyinka

3. 1. Music videos demonstrate genre
characteristics.
◦ This means that specific iconography associated with a particular genre
will be present depending on the genre. For example, high end cars and
accessories in a rap video and more of an abstract rather than realistic
video in an alternative genre video
A Lamborghini in
‘Everything Nice’ by
DreamDoll (A rap video)
A short cartoon
sequence in ‘Video
Games’ by Lana Del
Rey (an alternative
video)

4. 2. There is a relationship between lyrics
and visuals.
◦ Pretty self-explanatory, lyrics within the video is shown through the images. However, this may
be questionable, as in some music videos, the actual video has little to no relationship with the
lyrics.
‘Girlfriend’ by Avril Lavigne where there
is clearly a stong relationship between
the visuals and lyrics as the artist clearly
doesn’t like her love interest’s girlfriend
‘Silence’ by Marshmello ft Khalid where
the theme is emotional instability yet that
isn’t hinted at or shown at any moment
within the video.

5. 3. There is a link between music and
visuals
◦ In order for music videos to flow, there’s usually a subtle relationship
between the music and visuals. This is usually illustrated through the
pace and editing of the music video. For example, a slower paced song
such as ‘Someone like you’ by Adele required minimal editing and
slower camera movement to fit the pace. Whereas a faster paced video
such as ‘Bad and Boujee’ by Migos incorporate little camera movement
yet more cuts to suit the beat of the song.

6. 4. The demands of the record label will
impact types of shots for promotion
purposes
◦ The record label of the artist in question will request specific shots for
the artist for promotional purposes- mainly close ups, mid shots and
long shots. This incorporated in order to create a certain visual image
for the artist. A popular example of this is the close ups and long shots
of Rihanna in her video ‘Pour It Up’ in order to give her the public
image of being sexy/raunchy yet having a unique sense of style.

7. 5. There is a regular reference to the
notion of looking and voyeurism
◦ The notion of looking refers to screens within screens, mirrors and stages being present within
the video. Whereas voyeuristic treatment normally of women, refers to the camera being
focused on a women’s body, indirectly objectifying her, rather than her face in order to bring
generate more cis heterosexual male attention for the video- examples of videos that embody
heavy notions towards looking and voyeurism include ‘Rake It Up’ by Yo Gotti and Nicki Minaj,
‘Work’ by Rihanna and Drake and Anaconda by Nicki Minaj
Notion of Looking; Rihanna dancing by
herself in a mirror in ‘Work’
Women in clearly
inappropriate gardening
clothes in order to appeal
to the voyeurism of a cis
heterosexual male
audience

9. Her Two-Part Theory States;
◦ The camera/audience represents a heterosexual man’s perspective of the scene; thus
objectifying women. This is common in most music videos where women will often be in little to
no clothing and being overly sexuals.
◦ The second part of her theory is called the virgin-whore dichotomy- this suggests that women
are only represented as being an innocent virgin character or a overtly sexual whore