The music video for "Take It As It Comes" by indie rock band Vivian Girls uses a narrative structure where the band members sing and tell a story. It effectively demonstrates indie characteristics by emphasizing the lyrics and their meaning. The 1980s-inspired mis-en-scene and retro props establish the video's theme and brand the band as indie. The relationship between the lyrics and visuals is mainly amplifying, further explaining the song's lyrics through corresponding imagery. Close-ups of the band members also help introduce them to the audience as prescribed by record label demands.

1. Music video analysis
Goodwin‟s theory applied to Vivian
Girls – Take It As It Comes
Louise Fisher 6081

2. 1. Music video demonstrate genre
characteristics
Vivian Girls are an all girl Indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York.
Their music videos demonstrate these indie characteristics and in this
particular case the music video Take It As It Comes uses a
performance structure in a narrative where the girls are singing the
song as well as telling a story. This technique is used by a lot of indie
bands because it helps to emphasize the lyrics and their meaning.
The mis-en-scene in this case
is one of the main factors to
why this music video would
instantly be branded as an
indie band, by using old and
retro props with the theme of
the music video being 80‟s
American they really achieve
this look with a small
clustered, and girly room

3. 2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals
(illustrative, amplifying, and contradictive)
By using Goodwin‟s theory I can see in the music
video „Take It As It Comes‟ the relationship
between the visuals and lyrics is amplifying. For
example in the opening lyrics it says “Should I call
Johnny? What else to do? Alone on a Saturday
night” , when these lyrics are played the onscreen
visuals focus upon a girl alone in her room on the
phone to her friends. From the way the camera
cuts to a different position of her lying on the bed
the audience straight away know that she is love
sick which reflect the lyrics of wanting to get with
the guy she is in love with.
Because the band have adopted quite a distinctive
80‟s theme with their music, it is also reflected in
their music video. For example, the relationship
with lyrics and visuals is particularly amplifying at
1:00 because the lyrics are “To find true love, you
gotta first look like yourself “ and onscreen, the
screen is cut into two to show a connection
between the two friends which lets the audience
know that they are talking to each other and the

4. 3. There is a relationship between music and visuals
(illustrative, amplifying and contradictive)
By using Goodwin‟s theory I can see in the music video that the relationship between
music and visuals is also amplifying and illustrative. Because the performance (of the
girls singing) is embedded in the narrative of the music video it really compliments
the style of the 80‟s American teenage love dilemma well. For example the editor has
purposely used conventions of an 80‟s movie into their music video which reflects
their music well because their music follows the genre of 80‟s indie rock. At 0:19 in
the music video the editor has made a insertion of another shot into the frame of the
friend of the phone which immediately signifies to the audience that they are both
talking to each other through the phone. Also the low beats used at the beginning of
the music video echo the slow paced cutting rhythm which are purposely used
because the main girl is love sick and sad. However when the music turns upbeat and
fast pace all of the girls begin to get happier.

5. 4. Demands of the record label
Goodwin‟s theory states that the record label will
include the need for lots of close ups of the artist
in order to introduce the band to the audience.
This music video is a good example of Goodwin‟s
theory because lots of close ups are used to create
a good relationship with the audience.
At the beginning of the music video, a close up
and shallow focus of a telephone is used with the
girl lying in the background (out of focus); the
telephone used as an old 80‟s retro prop which
really sets the scene of the 80‟s. By using lots of
close ups, the band are selling themselves as an
indie pop/rock band because the audience are
able to see that the band particular follow a quirky
an distinctive and old-fashioned style from the
misenscene and all the props and costume there
are wearing really adopt this 80‟s theme style.
A lot of close ups are used of the girl‟s face which
shows the audience her expression of being love
sick and longing to be with the boy she is in love
with – this really helps to explain the narrative of

6. 5. There is frequent notion of looking
The music video for “Take It As It Comes” disproves Goodwin‟s theory
because the music video shows no signs of voyeuristic behaviour
(sexual treatment of the female body). I believe that the record label
purposely decided not to include this in their music video as a large
percentage of their fan base are females and this could make them
feel uncomfortable and as if they were objects.
From statistics on YouTube I was able to gather this information to
prove that the majority of their fan base are female:
There is no notion of
looking in the music
video, I think the editors
of the music video
wanted the audience to
concentrate on the lyrics
of the music and also the
girls themselves.

7. 6. Intertextual references (to films, TV
programmes and other music videos)
In the music video for „Take It As It
Comes‟ there are no other
intertextual references to films, Tv
programmes and other music
videos apart from having posters of
other bands in the background
which shares the same genre music
as the indie girl band Vivian girls.
The reason for having posters of
other bands in the background is so
that their fan members can relate to
other band groups with similar
genres. Some Indie bands fan bases
tend to be quite small so by doing
this it‟s a great way of advertising
other bands with similar sounds.

8. 7. Video is performance based, narrative
based or concept based and how elements of
each are used in it.
The music video is narrative based however it
has a lot of elements of performance through
the narrative, for example, the girls are
singing their song in the narrative. It is
cleverly put together which allows the
audience to make connections between the
lyrics and the visuals. It also makes the lyrics
of the song far more memorable.
I think the record label were extremely brave
in constructing this music video because it
doesn‟t really follow a typical and generic
indie band style, in fact it slightly follows a
pop style which is more common in the times
of the 80‟s which seems to be a recurring
theme throughout the bands music and their
style. The reason why the music video is
mainly narrative is because we don‟t really see
any elements of performance apart from the
band members singing like they are telling a