The Andrew Goodwin Theory is made up of 5 key aspects which are what an audience look out for when watching music videos. Which are as followed:
1. Thought beats- seeing the song within your mind/head
2. Narrative and Performance
3. Star Image
4. The relation between the songs lyrics and the visuals
5. Technical aspects within the music video
Thought Beats:
Step one: the listener will look into the actual music and interpret it, by the chorus or verses, but all within there minds
Step two: the artist will be identified from the rest of the beat and will be unique, essentially you will hear the voice within the song.
Step three: the story within the song will become recognised. The music video itself will help aid in telling the story behind the song, and intern the artist becomes a story teller.
Narrative and Performance:
The Goodwin theory suggests that we normally tend to make-up our own interpretation of the message behind the song from just a basic understanding of what the music maybe about.
Narrative and performance should be used together to insure the audience does not become bored, but engaged into the performance and also the story of the song.
Goodwin believes that miming is still the most popular thing done in music videos today, however states that the artist should try and make it as real looking as possible.
Star Image:
Star image within music videos is very important as it is a key aspect within the visuals of a music video.
Artists always want to be unique as they want the audience to remember them. Artists star image usually develops over time and changes to keep them current, star image also plays a big part in the actual production process of a music video.
The Relation Between The Song Lyrics And The Visuals:
Music videos use certain images to help illustrate the meaning of their songs and to help portray the actual genre by using the conventions in which that genre usually uses. The music video is essentially just telling the story of the song but by using images and visuals rather then words.
Technical Aspects:
Technical aspects essentially what puts the music video together. This includes camera movement, editing, cutting, speed of the shots.
The auteur theory, holds that the director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of the motion picture, is more to be considered the “author” of the movie than is the writer of the screenplay.
Nigel Dick
Nigel Dick was born in 1953 and is an English music video film director. He directed the Band Aid video 'Do They Know It's Christmas' as well as over 500 music videos
One of Dick's first music videos was 'Shout' by Tears for Fears in 1984. This video included many beautiful shots of scenery, including Durdle Door in Dorset. The singer was included in most of the shots, standing in front of the scenery or layered on top of shots. He also included several shots of the bands instruments as is a typical convention of a rock music video.
He then also had several people join in for the end of the music video to dance to the music. They seem to be random people. This could be to make the audience feel more involved with the music as they can relate to the people on stage as they represent the target audience.
He then also directed Britney Spears' 'Oops!... I Did It Again' in 2000. This video was very He then also directed Britney Spears' 'Oops!... I Did It Again' in 2000. This video was very different to his earlier ones. This video was mainly based on choreography as Britney Spears bases her videos off dancing and wearing tight clothing, using her sex appeal to attract her audience. Several shots were very artistically framed, but were no longer based on scenery as it was in 'Shout'.
Chris HopewellChris Hopewell is a English Music Video Director. He is not very well known but has created, what I believe to be, some very effective music videos. His video for Radiohead's 'There There' received an award for Art Direction at the TV Video Music Awards in 2003. His videos take on a more cartoon-like theme with choppy shots and dramatic use of lighting in a dark setting.
'There There', by Radiohead, was referencing the song from episode two of the British children's television series, Bagpuss. This makes this a surreal reference music video, as there are many scenes of small woodland animals living human-like lives, such as the two cats getting married. As the singer travels through the woods, the scenery gets lighter as he reaches a clearing where a golden jacket is hanging from a tree. He puts on the golden jacket along with a pair of shoes that he found within the tree and awakens the crows which chase the singer through the woods, until his shoes fall off. As his feet hit the ground, they turn into roots as he begins to transform into a tree which the crows sit on. The camera pans down to show the singers face trapped, screaming within the tree.
The entire sequence was filmed at one-quarter regular speed to make it look jumpy, creating a rather unrealistic effect whilst giving it an eerie atmosphere.
Hopewell also increased the contrast in his videos by having a dark setting and using bright shots and items to counter this. Throughout most of the sequence, the singer is surrounded with golden tinted woodland, unlike the bright golden settings with the woodland animals and the bright clothing that the singer takes from the tree.
'You're gonna go far kid', by The Offspring, was filmed in a very similar fashion, with an old film overlay giving it a vintage effect. This music video was based on Lord of the Flies and punishing those who are greedy. It also has a surreal theme as a plant goddess appears to give the peasant a magical guitar, allowing him to play and heal others, earning him lots of money, which he spends on himself, getting into more extravagant venues to earn more money, until his guitar is taken away from him for his selfishness. The video also holds Hopewell's signature jumpy shots by using a lower speed when filming. The video also remains dark throughout until he plays for the rich. There are dramatic contrasts between the dark and golden objects, such as the guitar and the money, linking the colour with what is deemed expensive or unique. This helps to create a very unusual effect that can be very eye-grabbing and creates an eerie atmosphere.
There are different styles in which music videos can take. These include performance, narrative, mixture and cameo.
Performance- A performance music video is when you can see the artist performing within the video and this will take up the majority of the video. Many performance music videos will consist of continuous shots of the artist performing the song and will have no narrative or any other shots. For example, in Beyoncé's song 'Love on Top' in which she just performed the song, however costume and lighting was used to make this video more appealing and interesting. Music videos that just include performance are not very common as they are not very popular as there in no way that the audience can engage with the artist or the song.
Narrative- A narrative music video is one in which includes a storyline within the video and is one that reflects the story behind the song itself. The most common form of narrative is a linear narrative, which is a story that has a beginning, middle and end all within the music video so the music video essentially becomes a short film. An example of a linear narrative would be Katy Perry's music video for 'Thinking of you'.
Mixture- A mixture is a music video that include both performance and narrative. This is the most common form of music video as it is the most interesting to watch as the audience can engage with the video as you can see the actual artist performing but also creates a visual of the songs story. For example, Kelly Clarkson's 'Since you've been gone'.
Cameo- A cameo is when the artist or band appears in the music video but as part of the narrative, as they do not actually perform in the video. An example of this would be the music video for 'What's my name', as both Drake and Rihanna appear in the narrative of the music video, which is effective as both artists are famous enough to know that that they are the artists behind the songs as there is no need to see them actually performing to know this.
Rock music is popular in the UK and America and originated as Rock-n-roll in the United States in the 1950's, and started to develop into different styles in the 1960's. These styles include indie rock, alternative rock and heavy metal.
Stereotypically the rock artists within the music videos wear black or dark clothes and have loud and often strange messy hair which makes them stand out as a individual artist. Rock artists also often have many tattoos and piercings, which adds to the unusual and different appearance. There unusual style and look also helps as a marketing tool as if there appearance is slightly 'weird' and a bit 'out there' then they will be memorable and will make people and potential fans notice them. Also many fans may be inspired by there appearance and will look up to them for inspiration on how to look as this will also be an indication that they are a fan of a particular rock group and make them feel that they are part of a group. Also to add to the slightly 'outrageous' appearance, many rock bands will wear make-up, most commonly dark eye make-up such as thick eyeliner.
Rock artists are mostly found in bands. In which you will find a lead singer and the rest will play instruments such as guitars and drums. The lead singer will often be in the front off all performances and photo shoot's in a form of hierarchy.
On a whole Rock music videos are quite 'weird' and include a variety of different and quite random shots. The majority of the shots that make up music videos are of the band performing on stage and will include quite dramatic lighting effects with the use of strobe lighting in a variety of vivid colours which contrasts with the dark clothes of the artists themselves. Editing is quite sharp and fast paced and will cut to different shots of the band members, which will include close ups of all the artists and the instruments they are playing. Camera movement is quite unsteady and this reflects the adrenaline that the songs themselves create, cameras are often handheld to create this effect also canted angles are used to create a disorientated effect that makes rock music videos the visual spectacle that they are. As the shots within the music videos are mainly based around the actual band rock music videos often have no narrative but instead are a mash up of random shots that are thrown together.
