The document discusses Goodwin's theory of common occurrences in music videos and analyzes how two music videos conform to the theory. It examines six common occurrences: 1) demonstrating genre characteristics 2) relationship between lyrics and visuals 3) relationship between music and visuals 4) role of the artist 5) intertextual references 6) voyeuristic treatment of female bodies. It finds that "When You Love Someone" conforms to most principles while "The A-Team" conforms to some but not others due to its low budget. Relating lyrics to visuals is identified as an important principle for an effective music video.

1. To what extent do the music videos ‘When you
love someone’ by James TW & ‘The A-Team’ by
Ed Sheeran conform to Goodwin’s theory?

2. Goodwin’s common occurrences in music videos
Goodwin had six common occurrences in music videos that made up his theory, I am going to explore,
individually if these two music videos conform to each common occurrence.
1) Does the music video demonstrate genre characteristics?
2) He said there is often a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. By this he meant the lyrics would
correspond with what the audience can see, creating a story-type effect.
3) The relationship between the music and the visuals. He looked at the relationship between the music and
the visuals in terms of does the music correspond with the pace of the edit etc.
4) He also said the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the
artist may develop motifs reoccur across their work. The idea that the artist needs to make a name for
themselves.
5) He also said there is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the
female body. For example in the music video for DJ Khaled’s ‘ I’m the one’ .
6) Finally he always noticed that there is often an intertextual reference.

3. ‘When you love someone’ – James TW
• When you love someone was written by James TW, it’s a song that explores the world through the eyes of a
parent/ child as an immanent divorce is enforced and told to the children of the relationship.
• It was released on the 19th August 2016
• It reached 28th on the US’ ‘Adult top 40’ and 5th on the ‘US Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists’

4. The song falls under the category of indie pop. One of the common features of the genre
would be a lot of low lighting. When you love someone demonstrates this with a common
reoccurrence of low-key lighting. This is a common motif throughout the video as it
represents the idea of sadness and the trauma the character is going through. For
example this screenshot, the lighting is very low-key, it’s the actual artist which suggests
the dark nature of the song.
Another key characteristic within the indie pop genre would be a clear narrative. In the
genre the song is often a narrative for the actual music video. Within the genre it’s a
common occurrence for the music video to tell a story. This music video tells the story of
how a teenage boy is going through the emotions of dealing with his parents arguing and
about to go through an inevitable break-up.
Like most modern music videos another genre characteristic of indie pop is breaking up
the narrative with shots of the artist lip-syncing/ performing the song. This allows the
audience to infer the atmosphere of the music video. If the lighting and camera angle
correspond are cheery and connote ideas of happiness the song is usually a cheerful one.
However in the song ‘When you love someone’ the shots of the artist James TW are low-
key lit with a lot of darkness casted on the performer. To the audience this corresponds to
the mood of the song and the rest of the video, which is another reason the music video
conforms to Goodwin’s theory.
‘When you love someone’ – Does the music demonstrate genre characteristics?

5. In the music video for this song it is clear that the lyrics are a narrative for the visuals,
there is a clear correlation between the two. For example at around 00:45 the lyrics
say “There have been changes in this house, things you don’t know about..” This
matches with the visuals as it shows the two parents having a discussion. This allows
the audience to infer that the child in the song is about to go through some sort of
change and from the lyrics the audience can infer it’s a pending divorce. This
conforms with Goodwin’s theory as the music video evidently exploits the idea of a
clear link between the lyrics and the visuals. Another example within the music video
would be at around 2:50 in the music video. The lyrics at this time are, “Sometimes
Mums and Dads fall out of love, sometimes the best intentions just ain’t enough..”
The visuals at this point show the child letting out his anger and frustration which
directly corresponds with the idea that ‘the best intentions aren’t enough’. It also
paints the image of two parents splitting up to the audience as the song literally says
when two parents fall out of love. This point of the video shows an angry kid which
presents the relationship between the lyrics as a narrative as perhaps some of the
audience have experienced this before. Overall the music video conforms to this part
of Goodwin’s theory as my two examples clearly show the audience what is
happening in the music video.
‘When you love someone’ – Is there a relationship between the lyrics and visuals?

6. In terms of the fluency of the music video, the shots change and the music video cuts between them to the beat of
the music. As the pitch of the guitar changes the music video generally cuts between shots. This increases the fluency
of the music video, as it does with most music videos.
In the music video, the artist James TW does appear. Throughout the video the music video switches between the
narrative and himself. He does not actually play a role within the music video in terms of the narrative, however he
does appear throughout. He most noticeably is in the music video as the chorus of the song plays, this allows him to
gain an identity, the chorus of the song is obviously the most well-known part of any song, therefore if the audience
associate him with this part of the song an identity is created. James TW started out on YouTube doing covers of
songs, this was one of his first songs he had written and after he was given a record label this video was a great
chance to create an identity for himself. This conforms to Goodwin’s idea that a record label shows as much of an
artist in order to create an identity for the audience.
‘When you love someone’ – Is there a relationship between the music and the
visuals
‘When you love someone’ – Is the artist in the video? What role do they play?

7. In the music video there are no intertextual references to any other forms in media. However, in a YouTube
video on his channel James TW explains how the idea of how a child is experiencing a trauma links to how he
once taught a child guitar and he was going through the same thing. He said the song and music video was for
the kid to watch and listen to, to feel better about what he was experiencing. This suggests to the audience
that the music video is a healing type video, for people to watch and not feel alone.
That is the only real intertextual reference in the music video, which suggests that this aspect of the music
video does not necessarily conform to this aspect of Goodwin’s theory.
Overall, the music video conforms to many aspects of the music video. For example his first three principles are
followed by James TW and his music video for ‘When you love someone’
‘When you love someone’ – Is there any intertextual references?
‘When you love someone’ – Overview:

8. ‘The A Team’ – Ed Sheeran
• The A Team was written and peformed by Ed Sheeran, it’s a song the puts the audience of a homeless lady
that has a drug addiction and is desperate for money.
• The song was released on 12 June 2011
• It hit 3rd in the UK Singles (Official Charts Company)

9. Ed Sheeran describes this music as Folk/Jazz music. One common convention of jazz/
folk music is the idea that it is all filmed in black and white. And this music video,
created by Ed Sheeran is. It’s very common within the genre. The monochrome
colouring reflects the mood of the song. This aspect of the video conforms with
Goodwin’s principle within his theory that all music videos demonstrate common
genre characteristics.
However there are many aspects of the music video that do not conform with this
principle. One example of this would be that, commonly, within this genre of music,
the music videos have a consistent tendency to break up the narrative of the music
video with shots of the artist performing. This music video does not contain Ed
Sheeran performing at any point. This does not conform to the principle of Goodwin’s
common occurrences within music videos.
Another example of how the music video does not demonstrate genre characteristics
would be that the setting does not conform. I have found out that the genre
commonly has its music videos set in isolate settings. However, as is visually clear, the
music video is based on a prostitute who is homeless and lives in the middle of a big
city. This music video was a huge success, which would suggest this principle does not
need to be projected in order to create a successful music video.
‘The A Team’ – Does the music demonstrate genre characteristics?

10. The lyrics of The A Team explore the life of a lady who is homeless and will do anything ‘for a
gram’ the lyrics directly correspond to the music video. It’s literally a matter of the lyrics
describing what you see. One example of this would be the lyric “White lips, pale face,
breathing in snow flakes..” This lyric is at 00:34 of the song. As the lyric is sung, there is a
mid-shot and the shot is high-key lit. This conforms to the principle and is one of many
examples. The effect of this principle is that the music video is given a purpose, using the
lyrics the visuals can tell a story to the audience. Without the visuals the audience would
have to make a lot of inferences when listening to just the lyrics. The video allows the song
to become a lot clearer and to actually tell a story and gives the song a whole new meaning.
An example of this would be at 03:54, the lyrics say ‘go mad for a couple grams’ without the
music video the audience would have to infer that the artist means drugs, which leaves a
room for creativity but uncertainty when inferring. However, by following this principle the
audience are able to fully understand the song.
Unlike the music video for When you love someone by James TW, there is no real
relationship between the music and the visuals. By this I mean the editing and the
camerawork etc. There is no real correspondence between the pace od the editing and the
pitch and beat of the music. This suggests that you don’t actually need to conform to this
principle to create a successful music video.
‘The A Team’ – Is there a relationship between the lyrics and visuals?
‘The A Team’ – Is there a relationship between the music and the visuals

11. The A Team was one of Ed Sheeran’s first hits and in many interviews he has expressed his
lack of confidence in front of the camera. This means that the music video does not
conform to this principle. The downfall to this for the artist Ed Sheeran, would be that he
is not able to create much of an identity. The artist does not play an actual role but the
main role has some relevance to him. The idea of being homeless and in need of money
used to be a common one for Ed Sheeran, at the time the music video was released
Sheeran was suffering from it.
As I previously mentioned Sheeran was hopping from couch to couch early on in his
singing career. The intertextual reference of this music video would be that the main
character of it and Sheeran have a few things in common. The fact they’re/ were both
homeless. That’s the only real intertextual reference within the music video. This music
video had a very low budget, and its professionalism is very low. That would be why the
music video doesn’t conform to many of the principles of Goodwin’s theory.
‘The A Team’ – Is the artist in the video? What role do they play?
‘The A Team’ – Is there any intertextual references?

12. The music video is based on the life and the struggles of a prostitute. So therefore this
principle of Goodwin’s theory is the most recognisably noticed. In terms of
stereotyping women voyeuristically one of the most common stereotypes would be
that women are overly sexual. One part of the music video explores the idea that the
woman will use her body as sexual object in order to get what she wants, which
would be drugs. In terms of voyeuristic treatment of women, another stereotype
would be that women are sexual objects and have no individuality. This stereotype is
explored through the idea of the main character being a prostitute who will do
anything for drugs.
In terms of applying the principles to my music video, I cannot apply every single one
to full effect. The best principles to apply to my music video would be relating the
lyrics to the visuals. Having this principle is key to successful music video as, as I
previously mentioned it creates a clear correlation between the music and the video
and keeps the audience entertained as it provides a story for the audience to follow.
And the lyrics do not have to depend on the audiences creative integrity to create a
story.
‘The A Team’ – Is there voyeuristic treatment of the female body?
How can I apply these principles to my music video?