1. Goodwin’s Music Video Analysis
• Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction
Factory’ (Routledge 1992)
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
(e.g. stage performance in rock video, dance routine in pop).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals
2. Goodwin’s Music Video Analysis
• 4. The demands of the record label will include the
need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist
may develop motifs which recur across their work (a
visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking
(screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly
voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv
programmes, other music videos etc).
3. Intertextuality and Cinema
• Many music videos draw upon cinema as a starting point,
since their directors are often film school graduates
looking to move on eventually to the film industry itself.
4. Directors Who Started With Music Video
Include:
David Fincher: Madonna Vogue and Express
Yourself.
Gone Girl, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Fight
Club.
Spike Jonze: Fatboy Slim Praise You.
Her, Where the Wild Things Are, Jackass 3D.
Michael Gondry: Bjork, Foo Fighters.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The
Green Hornet.
5. Intertextuality
From Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’ (Mary Lambert 1985,
drawing on ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’)…
…to 2Pac and Dr Dre’s ‘California Love’ (Hype Williams
1996, drawing on ‘Mad Max’) there are many examples of
cinematic references which dominate music video.
7. Madonna Material Girl
The intertextual image
is not necessarily of
Monroe, but of the
Hollywood archetype
of the sexy blonde
who uses her looks to
get what she wants.
8. Intertextuality
• Television is often a point of reference too, as in The
Beastie Boys’ spoof cop show titles sequence for
Sabotage (Spike Jonze 1994) or REMs recent news show
parody ‘Bad Day’ (Tim Hope 2003).
9. Intertextuality
• Visual reference in music video coming from a range of
sources, though the three most frequent are perhaps
cinema, fashion and art photography. Fashion sometimes
takes the form of specific catwalk references and sometimes
even the use of supermodels, as by George Michael in both
‘Father Figure’(Morahan/Michael 1988) and ‘Freedom’
(Fincher 1990).
• Probably the most memorable example of reference to
fashion photography is Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’
(Donovan 1986), parodied many times for its use of
mannequin style females in the band fronted by a besuited
Palmer. Shania Twain copied it for her ‘Man I feel like a
woman’ (Paul Boyd 1999) and Tamra Davis directed a $350
parody of it for Tone Loc’s ‘Wild Thing’ (1988).
11. Intertextuality
John Stuarts description of the music video “incorporating,
raiding and reconstructing” is essentially the essence of
intertextuality.
Using something with which the audience may be familiar
to generate both potentially nostalgic associations and new
meanings.
It is perhaps more explicitly evident in the music video than
in any other media form, with the possible exception of
advertising.
12. Task
Research and find three different music videos which
include the same ‘intertextuality’ features.
EXAMPLE:
1985:
http://www.youtube
.com/watch?
v=zM0KAh5w7Rs&
safe=active
1997:
http://www.yout
ube.com/watch?
v=Z6kmOyaON
bA&safe=active
2013:
http://www.you
tube.com/watc
h?
v=LrUvu1mlW
co&safe=activ
13. Task
Write briefly about how they have used intertextuality. Then
discuss:
What effect does intertextuality have when used in music
videos?
Will you use intertextuality in your music video? Yes/no.
Why?
Will be in the format of a song sample? A film influence?
