2. What is Goodwin's theory? Goodwin's theory states that 1.Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. 2.There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. 3.There is a relationship between music and visuals. 4.The presence of voyeurism. 5.There is often intertextual references. 6.There will be a lot of close ups of the band/artist. I am now going to analyse two music videos and apply Goodwin's theory. As I have chosen a punk rock track for my music video I decided to analyse a music video of the same genre and then a different genre. The first music video is by the Punk Rock band Polar Bear Club. The second music video is by Michael Jackson with his song Thriller.
4. Living Saints Nearly the whole video is a close up of the lead singer singing the song while various special effects are used on him. E.g. He appears to be on fire, a cartoon and space pilot. This music video definitely reflects the Punk Rock genre. Although not for long there is a band performance, this is included in nearly every Rock music video. The lead singer is also featured signing the song. In this video there is little relationship between the lyrics and visuals. There are only a couple of examples of when they do match. E.g. ‘A garden weed that cracks concrete’. During this part of lyric the lead singer appears to be concrete and weeds grow out through the cracks, he then breaks. ‘All my friends are living saints’. This lyric is during the band performance, all of the band members have halos on their heads. 3) There are various occasions when the music and visuals on screen match. For example When the lead singers face changes to the other band members faces, it changes in time with the beat of the music. Also towards the end of the video fireworks go off behind the lead singers head, these explode in time with the drums and guitar strums.
5. 4) There is no voyeurism in the video. The Punk Rock genre isn’t about sex appeal, bands do not include attractive models in their videos to sell their songs. Punk Rock is all about the music and that is how it should be in my opinion. 5) The beginning of the video shows the lead singer as a cartoon space ship pilot who then rockets into space. This could be a reference to comic books or cartoons. It is very similar to Peter Gabriel's video Sledgehammer. Polar Bear Club may have taken inspiration from this video. 6) Nearly the entire video is a constant close up of the lead singer. This creates an imprint for the viewer of the lead singer.
7. Thriller 1) This music video definitely represents the Pop genre. The focus is on the artist who lip syncs throughout, there are dance routines, a storyline and a great deal of close ups on the artists face. All typical codes and conventions of a pop music video. 2) Lyrics are matched to visuals on the screen throughout the video. When the song starts Michael is walking with the woman, he makes hand gestures and interprets the lyrics into actions. For example ‘you hear a creature creeping out behind’. He grabs onto the woman's shoulders from behind. 3) Again their is a relationship between the music and the visuals throughout. For example during the group dance routine the camera shots change on the beat of the music. 4) Unusually there is no voyeurism in this music video. This goes against the typical codes and conventions of a Pop music video. Usually voyeurism is displayed during a dance routine in a Pop music video. Although their is a dance routine, no voyeurism is showed.
8. 5) The music video is a mini horror film. Many horror films have the credits in red as this connotes danger and blood, things you would expect to be in a horror film. The opening credits of Thriller are red and appear to move to give the effect that they were written in blood. 6) Through out the video there were countless close ups of Michael Jackson. Therefore a viewer of the video without seeing the title will know that it is a Michael Jackson song/video. The close up of Michael when he turns around and turns into a zombie is iconic, as he is just about to dance in possibly the most famous dance routine of all time.
