R&P 29: Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

The theorist Andrew Goodwin came up with a music video theory stating that there are five key aspects to a music video:

1) Thought through beat (seeing what the lyrics mean in your head)

2) Relationship between the song and visuals.

3) Narrative and performance of the song.

4) Technical aspect of a music video.

5) Star Image (protagonist), lots of camera shots making him/her the centre of attention.

Thought through beat (seeing what the lyrics mean in your head)

Goodwin argued that there were three steps of this key aspect:

1) The process to analyse the music structure understanding the chorus and verses. 

2) The main voice of the song - the voice of the artist is unique compared to others and gives a person a form of identification which is related to the star image.

3) The story the artist is trying to tell within their song, which establishes them as a story teller. Music video can aid this by showing us the video through the vocals of the song.

Relationship between the song and visuals

Goodwin said that there are three ways in which visuals promote a song:

To illustrate - music videos use certain images to illustrate the meaning of their lyrics in their songs.

Disjuncture - this is when the meaning of the song is completely ignored in the video.

Amplify - This is when the images and camera shots are shown repeatedly throughout the music video and so it is drummed throughout our vision.

Andrew also believed that the music video can promote the song through the analysis of lyrics. This happens when the music video does exactly what the lyrics say e.g Rebecca Black - Friday

Narrative and performance of the song

Goodwin believed that it was essential for the artist to lay the role of the main actor/actress or performer in the music video. This is because it helps to make the video realistic and give a connection to the song. Most videos have the artist as the main attraction, for example Taylor Swift - 22:

This makes it seem realistic and engages with the audience hence Taylor Swift's huge fan base.

Technical aspect of a music video

Goodwin says that music videos are held together via technical aspects such as the mise-en-scene, special effects, sound, editing. Lighting and colour helps to create a mood for a music videos and can place emphasis on specific parts of the video. The mise-en-scene is also crucial because everything in the video can signify something to the audience. Another element of a song is the beat which can have an heavy influence on the editing pattern with it often matching the beat/tempo.

Star Image (protagonist), lots of camera shots making him/her the centre of attention

The artist is, according to Goodwin, always the main attraction of a music video and so it is crucial that they take on the 'star persona'. The star image is always crucial to how the artist is represented e.g costume, movement, appearance. This helps to create the artists public image and is crucial to the promotion and growth of the artist.

What has this post taught me?

From this post I learned key theory surrounding music videos which I will have to consider during the research, planning and creative process of my music video.