2. • Andrew Goodwin is a music video theorist. He
wrote 'dancing in the distraction factory',
which focus' on what makes a good music
video. To enable myself to create a good music
video, if i choose that brief, I am going to
analyse a music video of my choice under the
criteria of Andrew Goodwin.
3. The criteria:
• Close ups on the artists. This is often a demand on the
record company, from fans.
• iconography and styles within genres. EG: Live performances
from the artists in Rock.
• There should be a relationship between the music and the
visuals (The visuals should either illustrate or amplify the
music)
• There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other
music videos/films.
• Likely to be voyeurism particularly towards females.
4. Green day: 21 guns
This video has several close-ups on all of
the artists in the band. Most importantly
it focus’s on the singer and shows him
singing to the lyrics. Furthermore adding
a connection between the visuals and
the music.
The genre of this music video is rock.
Iconography and styles within rock
include live performances from the
bands, as they can often play all their
instruments. This video shows this
through full shots of the band playing,
and shots of each individual member
playing their own instrument. The video
additionally contains a narrative which
plays in between the live band shots.
This is also a typical convention of the
rock music genre. Lastly the band is
wearing all black, with all black
instruments. Furthermore keeping with
the conventions of rock.
5. This song is entitled ‘21 guns’ and has this
phrase repeated throughout the song. This
relates to the video itself through relating
the video to guns and bullets. The video
starts with a boy holding a bullet and then
focus’ on the bullet. Additionally when the
line ‘21 guns’ is first sung bullets start to go
around the characters in the narrative of the
video. This leaves bullet marks in the walls
of the set, which are not removed
throughout the whole video. Therefore
amplifying the lyrics.
There is not particularly a voyeuristic
treatment of the female body in this video.
This is not a common convention in rock
videos and is mostly found if pop/R&B style
videos. Therefore this video is plainly
following it’s genres conventions.
Furthermore not confusing the audience.
There is also no clear intertextual references
in this video. This could be because the
videos main purpose was to show the band
and a vague narrative.
6. In conclusion…
• After analysing this video to Andrew Goodwin’s
criteria I would say this video is successful.
• It ticks of three of the five main points
(iconography and genre styles, close-ups,
relationships between visuals and music )
• However it did not have clear voyeurism or
intertextual references. Despite this is could be
argued that this video was following its genres
conventions so the audience would not feel
confused.
