Rachel Cox A2 Media Studies
Andrew Goodwin’s Music Video Theory
Guns and Roses
Andrew Goodwin, a director of music, noted how music videos feature certain elements. Goodwin addresses these six steps in order to bring it to the audience’s attention as well as assist music video directors when creating a music video.
Music videos more often than not tend to include a demonstration of typical genre characteristics.
NO.1
Rock Genre
An example of this would be Bon Jovi's 'Wanted Dead or Alive' music video as the band are on a stage performing to the crowds of people below. Rock bands opt for a stage performance as they can show off their musical talent and the band can play their musical instruments such as drums and guitars as forceful as they want to be, expressing to the audience or crowd how 'tough' or 'hard' rock is. The rock genre contrasts hugely with other genres within the music industry, such as Pop. This is because Pop connotes happy, colourful themes throughout whereas rock connoted aggressive, dark themes throughout. The Pop band 'One Direction', contrast rock bands hugely due to the typical codes and conventions displayed in their music videos. Firstly, the colours used are a lot more brighter and colourful compared to the minimal spotlights and black and white music video displayed in Bon Jovi's music video above. The outfits in which One Direction wear are casual similarly to Bon Jovi but are more casual as they are wearing just t-shirts and a jeans, juxtaposing Bon Jovi's leather jackets and hats. Despite this, One Direction have a more smarter approach to their outfits and style than Bon Jovi as they are displaying the raw theme to the rock genre, with messier hair and scruffier attire.
NO.2
Goodwin’s second step focuses on how lyrics match up with the Music Video’s visuals.
Pop Genre
When you hear a song, you feel the emotion and the message wanting to be put across by the artist which is usually what is then seen in the music video. Narrative music videos are great examples of this as normally the narrative is there to influence the audience's emotions and make the song more emotional. In Green Day's 'Wake me up when September Ends' the overall song is emotional because of the tone in which the singer is singing at, but also the speed of the song is slower. The lyrics match this song well because they also are emotional too. As the song is called 'Wake me up when September ends' this has connotations that introduce an idea that the singer doesn't have any willingness to go on at the time in which he is portraying to the audience and wants to be woken up when September is over. As the song progresses the speed and tone increases, causing the song to become less sad emotional but more powerful and meaningful. They lyrics stay very emotional still, 'Falling from the stars, drenched in my pain again', which suggests to the audience that the singer is falling apart and is in emotional pain
or distress.
NO.3
There is a succinct relationship between music and visuals. e.g. either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting
There are three ways visuals are used to promote a song :
Illustrate- Music videos use certain images & shots to illustrate/explain the meaning of lyrics to their song and the genre.
Disjuncture. In this situation , the meaning of the song is completely ignored in the music video.
Amplify (repeatability)- This is when the images and camera shots are manipulated and shown repeatedly through out the music video and is drummed into our vision.
,..
In Aerosmith's 'I don't want to miss a thing' music video we notice that the lead singer Steven Tyler is performing to the audience by singing directly into the camera. This emphasises the lyrics he is singing as 'you' is sung multiple times as the song begins, and as he is singing to the audience it makes it more personal for them to watch. For the first 1.17 of the music video, we only see Tyler and not the rest of the band and so after this time, they are introduced too. Despite this, the main focus on Tyler is still very much there as many of the shot are of him too. This song is an example of Goodwin's 'Illustrate' example as many of the shots portray the narrative within the music video and the song.
The music video also starts as a slow emotional song which is displayed through the use of minimal colour. As the song progresses we learn that the narrative within the music video begins to become a lot more upbeat and passionate as so is the tempo of the music. There are also more instruments added to the existing instruments to increase the intensity within the music video. The colour at the end of the music video is a lot more vibrant to emphasise this also.
During the music video, there is a part of the song where Tyler sings ' I don't wanna close my eyes' which links perfectly to the visuals provided as the man who is from the film this song is linked with, closes his eyes. The way in which he closes his eyes provides the audience with an insight to how he is emotionally feeling and he is appearing to be upset or distraught in some way, creating a narrative for our audience to uncover and follow.
NO.4
The record label which the artist is assigned to tends to have certain demands.
In the Foo Fighter's 'Learn to fly' music video, the lead singer 'Dave Grohl' is seen playing various roles within the video. The effect of this is that the audience who associate the Foo Fighters with Dave Grohl are entertained throughout the song. It also gives the audience something to talk about and potentially share online on various platforms promoting the music video and the band. Many audiences will be entertained with the appearance of Grohl being many characters of both gender and the fact that this happens, juxtaposes typical rock codes and conventions, making it more entertaining to watch, as it is an unlikely occurrence due to him being in a rock band.
By having Dave Grohl in the music video 'Learn to Fly', the audience are more likely to enjoy the video and be entertained. Grohl is shown being a fan of himself which could present the idea of him being a slightly bit big-headed but could just be an example for the audience to enjoy. Using Dave Grohl as a comical range of characters influences the number of views and social interaction produced as it would be something that a range of audience would enjoy to watch.
