Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin's music video theory.

Andrew said there was 5 key aspects to music videos these are:

-thought beats- seeing  the sound.
- Narrative and performance
- The star image
- Relation of visuals to a song.
- Technical aspects of a music video

in other words he said:

There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, this means that the meanings to the lyrics are clearly shown in the video, the video is doing exactly what the lyrics say/person is singing.

There is a relationship between the music and the visual this means that if the song is slow then the pace of the video will also be slow, or if the song is about a certain place it is likely that the video will be set in that place.

Particular music genres have their own music video style. For example a lot of  hip hop songs include females showing a lot of flesh and skimpy outfits.

Lots of close ups of the artist (demand from the record label)  this is a way of advertising the artist.

Artists have their own star image which we as the audience expect to see in all video's as well as outside of videos for example Micheal Jacksons white glove.

There is likely to be an element of voyeurism meaning they are observing something they are not part of or watching something you wouldn't normally watch. There is also normally a male gaze in many music videos although there is now becoming a female gaze in a lot of newer media.

Andrew also said that there is 3 main styles of music videos, these are: Narrative, performance and concept.

-Narrative music videos generally have a direct interpretation, they are like a short film with  a clear beginning, middle and end.
-Performance music videos are where we see the artist/band either live in their music video, playing an instrument to the camera or in some form of studio whether it is real or set up.
-Concept music videos normally have no direct link or relationship between the visuasl or lyrics, they're often surreal and entropic; hard to figure out the meaning.