Andrew Goodwin has six key conventions to the making of
different music videos. The different genres, lyrics and vocals, link between
Music and videos, The record label demands close ups of artists in music videos,
Notion of looking, and Intertextuality.
Each one is what Andrew Goodwin thinks
is present or what is expected in today’s music videos. He believes that
different genres of music have different ways of promoting themselves and
showing their music to an audience. Pop music is show to be advertising and
promoting the image of an artist to their viewers, for example the song ‘We
can't stop’ by Miley Cyrus shows many close ups of the artist, starting at the
beginning having close ups of her face when she is putting on her lipstick. Pop
artists main aspect of music videos is to promote them to the viewers watching.
Record labels also demand close ups of artist because of promotion. They also show lip singing, dancing is
present, showing group dance. Another genre is rock, many rock videos have a narrative
playing, having a story that is shown within the music video. An example of this
is by the Red-Hot Chilli Peppers ‘Tell me baby’ showing a story that shows
throughout that could link to the lyrics or theme of music. Another genre that presents its music in
different ways is rap mostly using props like fancy cars, which are raptured in
the music video. An example of this in
from Partynextdoor ‘Break from Toronto’ using theses props. They also show
women in a very degrading way. Showing them as a sexual object throughout.
Andrew Goodwin also shows that most of the lyrics and vocals
have nothing to do with the music video, which is Disjunctive. An example of
this is ‘Waiting All Night’ by Rudimental. The music video shows a liner story
about a man who has a hobby for BMX riding. He then has an accident, which
causes him to have his leg amputated leading to difficulties for his hobby. The
main repeated lyrics in this song are ‘I’ve been waiting all night for you to
tell me, tell me that you need me, tell me that you want me’ Showing more of a
romantic side to the song which does not match with the video theme itself.
There are also
illustrative lyrics that match the song directly representing the lyrics. An
example of this is ‘Rude’ by Magic!
Using the lyrics to come up with a linear story line, showing that he is going
to ask the fathers permission to marry his daughter. His response is no, making
it seem rude and he is going to marry his daughter anyway.
Another one of
Andrew Goodwin’s example on lyrics is the visuals and lyrics having a visual
Metaphor for the lyrics, which is Amplification. An example of this is Miley
Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking ball’ using the Wrecking ball as the pain and destruction her
last relationship caused on herself, ripping and destroying everything she had.
Andrew Goodwin also talked about the Notion of looking, this is
when the artist is looking straight into the camera, their eyes are focused on
us the audience. Having a personal connection. There are many examples of this
in the pop genre of music videos. One example is Beyoncé in her song ‘If I were
a boy looking into the camera which connects her and her audience.
Iconography is
also used in many music videos in the pop genre; this is when a certain artist/
band repeats a certain action or lyrics in their music videos. An example of this would be N-Dubz with the
main lead Dappy singing ‘ Na Na Nai ‘ before every song started. Also in many
hip-hop and rap music videos there is a lot of images of women in skimpy
clothing in their music videos, showing the women in a degrading manner showing
themselves as sexual objects/images. Showing voyeurism from different
audiences. An example of this would be
Tyga ‘Make it nasty’ showing women from the beginning of the song in underwear
bending over and showing their body to the camera. This agre4ss with one of Andrew Goodwin’s
theory because of this video in the rap hip-hop genre showing the women in this
degrading light.
Intertextuality
is also seen and showed in some music videos. This is when the narrative story
or different parts are referencing to another audio or text that already
exists. An example of this in music videos is a song by Beasty Bears ‘Sabotage’ which references to a 70 cop show
type of theme which shows by the location that they are in and the costume that
they are wearing.
There has been many different creative ways to create an
interesting and eye-catching music video for an audience; this is created by
the form and style of the visuals. One of these techniques are stop motion,
capturing different movement by many different pictures, the main character
starts moving into an action slowly whilst single pictures are being taken. A
famous example of this would be Peter Gabriel 'Sledgehammer' using this technique whilst lip syncing. An example of these techniques in a music video is ‘In your
arms’ by Kina Grannis, using stop motion and animation through out the
video. Another technique used in many
videos to make it look different is using play back on set, filming something
In a faster pace then it should be the when editing slow it down to create a
slow motion feel but the words will still be in sync. An example of this, which
is used in a music video, is ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay. When walking along the
beach.
