The music video for Nickelback's "Savin' Me" follows several conventions of rock music videos according to Andrew Goodwin's music video theory. It features shots of the band performing in a dark setting and tells a story that relates to the lyrics. The video also includes many close-ups of the lead singer as demanded by the record label. Nickelback uses consistent motifs across their videos, including plain clothing. Additionally, the video references the film "In Time" through its depiction of timers counting down above people's heads.

1. Music video analysis
Using Andrew Goodwin’s
Theory

2. Andrew Goodwin’s 7 key features of a music video
• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal
videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with
images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
• There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of
the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
• 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).
• There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors,
stages, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual
style)
• There are often intertextual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music
videos etc.).

3. Nickelback - Savin' Me
"Savin' Me" is a song written by the Canadian band
Nickelback and was released as a single in 2006. The
song is a rock song and features acoustic/drums in
the music.
Nickelback are well know for making rock songs and
they have a particular style which “Savin' Me“
follows. The music video for “Savin' Me“ is different
to other Nickelback music videos because it include
very little of the band themselves and focus mainly
on telling a story apposed to the bad themselves.

4. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos,
dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
Goodwin’s theory states that each genre of music has it own characteristics for their music videos,
meaning that all pop music videos will contain certain things and all country music videos will contain
others. “Savin' Me” is a rock video and thus contains certain conventions that all rock music videos
contain.
The first convention that “Savin' Me” follows as a rock video is that the artist/band is featured
preforming throughout the video. In “Savin' Me” you can see Nickelback preforming several times
however in all of the clips only the main singer is preforming and the other members of the band are
simply standing/sitting with blank expressions on their faces often staring into blank spaces.
The second convention it follows is that the set of the video is dark or has lots of shadows, “Savin'
Me” follows this convention as the shots of the band are filmed in a dark, dirty and derelict looking
apartment which suits the style of the lyrics, it is also appealing to the target audience of the music.

5. Another common convention for this type of music video is a long or extended instrumental section
which breaks up the lyrics but still keeps the song interesting for the listener. Nickelback’s “Savin’ Me”
includes an instrumental which allows the person watching the video to understand the story better
because they are not having to concentrate on the lyrics of the song.
In rock songs the music videos are often either of the band preforming the song live for an audience or
of a story that the video tells which is often tied into the lyrics of the song. Nickelback often have a story
behind their videos and “Savin’ Me” is no different telling a short yet interesting story which keeps the
watcher or listener interested for the duration of the song.
Another convention that rock music videos
generally follow is the band is normally in dull
clothing which doesn’t draw too much attention to
them, meaning you focus mainly on their faces and
not their outfit. In “Savin’ Me” the main singer is
wearing a plain brown jumper and has lots of
close-ups on his face.

6. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.
(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
The lyrics of “Savin’ Me” are represented by the music video which go with them. The song itself is
about a man realising how he could die at any time and how he wouldn't go to haven because he
hasn’t lived his life as a good person, he is trying to ask god to help him live a good life so he can
go to heaven when he dies.
The video tells a slightly different
story however it links in to the story
in a few ways. The Video tells the
story of a man who’s life is saved
and he realises that he could die and
time and then starts seeing timers
above peoples heads that are
counting down, he then realises that
these timers represent how long
someone has left to live and notices
that a woman who was about to get
into her cars timers was dropping
rapidly so he pulls her away and
saves her life passing the ability to
see the timers on to her.
I think theses stories
are connected
because they both
show how a man
nearly dies and
changes his actions
because of it, the
male characters in
both stories also
realise that they
could die at any
minute and change
because of it.

7. I think theses stories are
connected because they both
show how a man nearly dies
and changes his actions
because of it, the male
characters in both stories also
realise that they could die at
any minute and change
because of it.
The music video for “Savin’ Me”
has a direct relationship to the
music or song itself, the
atmosphere reflect the music’s
darker tone. The music video
includes lots of shots which are
dull and often only grey and
white with other dull colours
and often features dark or
shaded areas of the city to
emphasise this.

8. 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).
“Savin’ Me” features several close ups on the lead singer of Nickelback Chad Kroeger, this is due
to demands of the record label wanting to have the band and specifically Chad as the main singer
to help sell the band and make more money.
Nickelback also has several motifs which they use in most of their music videos. Usually the band
are in simple bland clothing, often a simple plain t-shirt which isn’t a bright colour and black or blue
jeans. Another thing that is often seen in Nickelback music videos is a close up of Chad Kroeger
singing the chorus of that song.

9. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages,
etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
The music video for “Savin’ Me” features several shots which look like they have been taken from
CCTV cameras, this refers to Goodwin's 5th theory, which explains that music videos often
reference the notion of looking. Several of these shots are used at the begging to establish the
setting of the video which is a dull city with little colour.
The camera shots that look like they have been taken from CCTV cameras makes us feel we are
watching it live and thus feel closer to the band, song and story that the video is telling which helps
to sell the album and make more money.

10. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur
across their work (a visual style)
Nickelback also has several motifs which they use in most of
their music videos. Usually the band are in simple bland
clothing, often a simple plain t-shirt which isn’t a bright
colour and black or blue jeans. Another thing that is often
seen in Nickelback music videos is a close up of Chad
Kroeger singing the chorus of that song.

11. There are often intertextual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music videos etc.).
The music video for “Savin’ Me” has several intertextual
references including the film “In time” Which tells the story of a
world where time is currency, one you run out of time you die, you
can earn time by working but have to spend time on things like
food, water and other essentials. Everyone looks as if they are 25
because of anti aging technology which means that people can
live for longer and more youthful. This obviously ties in with the
theme of the “Savin’ Me” theme due to the fact that in both we re
given a set amount of time to live however people can extend that
by saving people in “Savin’ Me” and by working in InTime. I the
movie InTime the people all have a digital clock style count down
clock which is very similar to the timers people have in the video
“Savin’ Me” which leads me to believe it is directly referencing the
movie.
The two
different
countdown
timers in Savin’
Me and InTime.

12. Panic! At The Disco - lying is the most fun
“Lying is the most fun" is a song written by the
American band Panic At The Disco. It was released as
part of the album “A Fever You Can't Sweat Out”
which came out in 2005. The song is an Indi-rock
song.
Panic At The Disco are well know for making several
songs and they have a tendency to have narrative
based music videos which make there songs feel like
they have meaning to them.

13. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine
for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
Goodwin's theory tells us that each genre of music has specific conventions, as we are using a song from the
indie genre I will be analysing these conventions within the video.
One of the main conventions is for indie bands to be preforming live on stage or to have a narrative if the band is
preforming live then it shows us that the band is new and quirky which relates to the genre. However if a narrative
is used then it shows us that the song is designed to tell a story and is a great way to make it stand out from other
songs.
Another convention used in the indie genre is that the people featuring in the video are wearing clothing that
makes them stand out from the crowd, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are wearing bright clothing however
it does mean that they are wearing clothing you wouldn't expect to see in everyday life.
Indie music videos often contain random things which are designed to make people re-watch the video after they
have seen it once, this is deliberately done as it keeps people interested throughout the video.

14. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.
(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
The lyrics of “lying is the most fun” are related to the visuals of the music video in several ways,
they tell the story of a man whose girlfriend cheated on him, he's asking if it was worth it to cheat
on him because he believes she'll never have someone better than him and if the person he
cheated on him was worth losing him over.
The video tells the story of a couple and how she saves him by taking him into her tank and then
how she finds him dead after he discovers she cheated, then she kills herself because she cant
deal with what she has done, then the paramedics arrive and save them both and free them
together and then we see them kissing and come back to life.

15. 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).
The music video of “Lying is the most fun” doesn’t follow this convention as Goodwin thought it should as there are
no close up shots of the artist in the video. In fact the video for “Lying is the most fun” takes this a step further and
doesn’t actually include the artist at all, this could be don’t deliberately as it could be seen as a counter convention
to make the video stand put from others in the same genre which could attract audiences from other genres.
The video does however contains many close-up’s of actors who are in the video, this could be deliberate so they
don’t go against the convention completely as this is a risk which could cause them several issues. I think the
actors have been chosen to be in the close up shots because they represent the story easily whilst keeping the
focus on the story and not the music.

16. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc.) and
particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
The music video for the song “Lying is the most fun” references the notion of looking in several ways, the main
being water and reflections in water. The music video includes several people who's heads are trapped in fish
tanks, this shows interesting reflections in some cases. Water is also used near the beginning of the video
when it is spilt on the ground and shows the reflection of the woman's legs approaching (see below).
I think the video follows this convention as it makes the video more interesting and re-watchable. I also think
the female body is used in this shot to attract male viewers as the legs are suggestive and attractive especially
as the woman bends over to pick up the fish in the pool.

17. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual
style)
Panic! At the disco are well known for having interesting music videos as well as having a
variety of music genres. The videos from Panic! At the disco usually have several random
things, for example the video for “Build god, then we’ll talk” contains lots of random elements
which are comedic but also creepy and make the watcher uneasy or laugh.
Panic! At the disco also have a motif of not appearing in there videos or if they do they are
almost always characters in a story they are trying to tell, this could be because they do not like
performance based videos or it could be a stylistic choice to make the watcher feel that each
time they see them in a different situation they see a new side to them which keeps them
interesting and fresh.

18. There are often intertextual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music videos etc.).
Panic! At the disco are well known for having interesting music videos as well as having a variety of
music genres. It's about a man whose girlfriend cheated on him, he's asking if it was worth it to
cheat on him because he believes she'll never have someone better than him and if the person he
cheated on him was worth losing him over.
Natalie Portman says the words "Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off,
but it's better if you do." in the movie "Closer” this is the full title of the song, Panic! At the disco
could have chosen this in order to make a reference to the movie. The movie includes the
characters all sleeping with other members of the cast cheating on each other which is what the
story of both the song and the lyrics are.

19. Artic monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent
“Fluorescent Adolescent " is a song written by the
British band from Sheffield the Arctic monkeys. It
was released as single in 2007. The song is an Indi-
rock song.

20. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine
for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
Goodwin's theory tells us that each genre of music has specific conventions, as we are using a song from the
indie genre I will be analysing these conventions within the video for the song florescent adolescent.
The main conventions for indie bands is for the band themselves to be preforming live on stage rather than a
studio recoding or to have a narrative if the band is preforming live then it shows us that the band is modern and
quirky which relates to the genre. However if a narrative is used then it shows us that the song is designed to tell a
story and is a great way to make it stand out from other songs whilst keeping within the conventions of that genre.
Another convention used in the indie genre is that the people featuring in the video are wearing clothing that
makes them stand out from the crowd, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are wearing bright clothing however
it does mean that they are wearing clothing or in this case makeup you wouldn't expect to see in everyday life.
The clowns in the video for the song “florescent adolescent” shows us that the music video has been designed to
be re-watchable and interesting whilst.