Music Video
Andrew Goodwin's Theory for music videos
Goodwin’s theory suggests that music videos illustrate , amplify or contradict the lyrics written in the song. Each genre has their own music style although each band or artist may develop their own star iconography which becomes their identity as a celebrity.
Purpose
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To promote the band or an artist.
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To promote single/ album by the artist.
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For the fans of the artist, to keep them interested.
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Puts a lyric into picture.
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Structure
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A 3 or 4 minute video to express to the audience the lyrics and meaning behind the writing of a song.
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Is a combination of narrative, live performance and other visual imagery.
Elements
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Narrative
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Performance
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Thematic
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Symbolic
Music Video Research
Inital Research
Narrative
Many music videos contain a narrative, they have to find a story for their video that fits in with the lyrics and meaning of the song. This is the hard part of the music video because the narrative has to fit in the 3-6 minutes the song takes place. This means we are going to have to come up with a narrative that tells a story in 3-6 minutes which our audience are going to be able to understand. For example pop sensation Justin Bieber uses love/heartbreak often for this music video narrative. Here in his video ‘As Long As You Love Me’ he tells the story that goes with his lyrics about how he his girlfriend’s father won’t let them be together but as long as they both love each other nothing matter or will get in the way.
Performance
The performance part of Andrew Goodwin’s theory is about the artists themselves and how they portray themselves in their videos or if they even appear their videos. Many artists are amazing singers, have the right image and can dance. These are the main elements artists have throughout most music videos which connect music videos together. The performance takes a massive part in music videos because in order to sell their music video is to draw audiences in to watch the video, looking good, sounding good and then having the element of dancing in their video makes it interesting and appealing. Also it can be a way for the artist to show themselves in the way they wish to be presented. Many artists act in their video to go along with the narrative story but depending on what the narrative is all about can have a large impact on how the artist comes across. They need to make themselves look likeable in order to draw in the audience and fans. However certain artists like to challenge this and hope to gain fans for their dramatic change or for being different. For example Miley Cyrus had a young fan base from being on Disney channel from a very young age but as she got older and pursued a solo artist career she wanted to change and become more herself therefore she made her videos appeal to an older audience.
Thematic
Throughout music videos depending on the genre you can always find similarities. The same type of music usually have similar set outs for their videos because that’s what works for the kind of music to make it sell and appeal more to the audience who clearly like that genre of music.
Symbolic
The use of everything in the video helps to create what the video is. Such as in a music video about love the use of the colour red can portray love or if the lighting was soft and warm it would add to the loving atmosphere. However if it was a heavy metal music video with a band playing the use of dark lighting and in a derelict building would portray the kind of music being played.
Other Music Video Research
Wikipedia
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes.[1] Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip".
Here on Wikipedia it is saying how a music video is like a short film because in a music video a story needs to be told in a few minutes which is where the narrative comes into it.
By Jazmine Allen