Goodwins Music Video Analysis

Andrew Goodwin's music theory

 Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music videos. He created 6 rules for making music videos. These 6 were taking from "Dancing in the distraction factory"
 
1) The first is that there is often a link between the visuals and the music
Visuals can be used to promote a song. Music videos can use certain images/shots to illustrate their song. The visuals can either illustrate, amplify or contradict the song.

2) The second is that there is often a link between the lyrics and the visual
  Godwin suggests that lyrics will make constant references to the visuals on screen. The visuals help us to understand the story that the artist is potentially trying to depict through the lyrics. Visuals will reinforce what the lyrics say.

3) The third is that music videos tend to include a demonstration of typical genre characteristics
For example a grime song would probably include a video with lots of young people, most likely boys with hoods or on bikes. The mise-en-scence, location, setting etc of the video with often be typical of the song's genre.
 
4) The fourth is that there is frequent reference to the notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
Godwin identified that a typical feature of music videos is that women are portrayed as sexual objects and are merely present of the pleasure of the men in the video. They are often seen being seductive or voyeurism is used as an attempt to use sex appeal to sell the song.

5) The fifth is that the record label demands frequent close-ups and a continous visual style

It is a common feature for record labels to use close ups of the artist and lots of shots in order to promote the artist. The artist will often have a visual style. The artist will often have a visual style which recurs across their work.

6) The sixth is that the music video often contains intertextual references.
The visuals or lyrics are often a direct reference to another media text.