Analysis of music videos- Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin created a theory in relation to the analysis of music videos. His idea focused on 5 aspects which are:

• The link between both the lyrics and music to the visuals
• The narrative and performance in the video (including genre indicators)
• The creation of the star persona (including Notion of Looking/ voyeurism)
• Intertexual references
• Technical aspects (including Notion of Looking/ voyeurism, close-up's etc
  

Lyrics and the visuals: Goodwin claims that the images seen in the music video will either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyric being sung. In simpler terms, Goodwin suggests that the visuals will either indicate the lyric being sung through images that support both the lyric and the genre (the most common within music videos); repeat and highlight the imortance of the a certain lyric or completely ignore/ go against what the lyric is saying.

Narrative and performance: Each genre of music and therefore video has its own musical style and iconography which allows the audience to differentiate between the genres. In addition to this, Goodwin believes that the song fails to give its audience a full understanding of the meaing, leaving it down to the audience to make up the rest. The music video therefore should ignore common narrative (important for the role of advertising) whislt also providing repeatable moments and having a strong performance to engage the audience, in order to both tell the meaning of the song (in some cases) and leave it for the audience to decide on.

Star persona: A music video will create an artist image and over time this image is developed to being a major part of an artist. This creates a selling point that the industry requires in order to make the artist successful. In regards to female artists, this star persona is also created through the enhanced sexuality that is created through the performance and camera work.

Intertextual references: Music videos reference other media texts e.g. films, TV shows, other music videos etc in order to make video more interesting for the audience and keep them engaged.

Technical aspects: A common feature of music videos, according to Goodwin, is the constant use of close-up's on the artist that draw the audience in and creates a personal connection with the audience as the artist is looking right at them. In additon to this, through the use of panning and close-up's on certain body parts, the Notion of Looking is created to add sexuality especially in regards to female artists. This is used to provide another selling point for the artist as it atracts male fans.

These points combine to successfully aid in the analysis on music videos, as these points are present in every music video.