Friday, 8 July 2016

Theorist - Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin wrote and published a book called 'Dancing in the distraction factory'. This booked stated a number of key features in music videos. 

These key features are:

  1. Genre has its own style and iconography
  2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals (illustrate, amplify and contrast)
  3. Relationship between music and visuals (illustrate, amplify and contrast)
  4. Demands of record labels (star image)
  5. Frequent references to the notion of looking (voyeurism) 
  6. Inter-textual references
To see how these features are put into music videos. I have chosen to research 6 music videos to see if I can spot these features in well-known artists work and if certain genres contain more features. 

Iconography:
Boy bands have a certain iconography related to them of well choreographed dance moves. I found this to be true in One Direction's 'Steal my Girl' music video.



Relationships between lyrics and visuals:
Owl City's song illustrates the lyrics within the visuals. There is a robot dancing when the lyrics 'teach me how to dance' and a robots eyes are shown when the lyrics sing 'you might not believe your eyes'.

 


Relationship between music and visuals:
The beginning of this music video has a beat that matches the flashes of lightening. This matches Goodwin theory. 

 


Star Image:
Leona Lewis' song has a large amount of close ups. This meets the demand of the record label she is signed to as it is helping to create a 'star image' for her as her audience are shown a lot of her face.  



Voyeurism:
 When watching Zayn's music video for 'Pillow Talk' I noticed that there were several references to the sexualisation of females, with his girlfriend Gigi Hadid being used to engage in sexual activity and the images of naked ladies. 


Inter-textual References:
Taylor Swift's music video for her song 'Love Story' contains inter-textual references towards the famous Shakespeare play 'Romeo and Juliet'. This music video is a modern twist on the age old love story between the star crossed lovers. 


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