goodwins theory

Music videos represent genre and characteristics:  this could mean a number of things such as, casting, camera angles, mise en scene and costume. For example the rap genre can be represented through dark shady coloured costume and caps such as ‘n dubz’ who often dress like that to show there background and what type of music there into.  The mise en scenes in many music videos from ‘n dubz’ are very outgoing, mainly on roads or rich places.  This is to show where they have come from and what they can do now.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting: lyrics can show through the music video, this could be through sudden, dramatic and shocking visuals when there is an important section of the song such as the chorus or the coda to create maximum effect (e.g. a car crash to end the song) or it could be through literally translating the lyrics into the visuals.  The idea of contradicting lyrics saying goodbye to a loved one and the visuals showing the two characters coming together.

There is a relationship between music and visuals: there is always a link between lyrics and visuals, no matter how slight this is. The most common link between music and visuals is an storyline narrative- this is visually showing the story that the lyrics are telling. Another common relationship is that of the instruments and the visuals

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs across their work: this is true in many music videos as it is important to make the band easily recognisable to their fans. The close ups promote the artist/band and the motifs make the band recognisable to fans. For example, every artist/band has their own distinctive sound, some more than others and certain musical features can distinguish the band from others within the genre.

There is frequent reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body: there are many modern artists who use female sexuality to seduce the male audience for publicity. This is an age old trick which has been used for many years and it works very well. This is used in many contemporary pop videos such as Cheryl cole video ‘under the sun’

There are of ten intersexual references (to films, TV and there possible references) Marilyn masons video ‘born villain’ references the film ‘the holy mountain’ very strongly. There are many other examples of referencing films and other media within music videos as this is a way or adding layers of meaning to videos. It is also a way of widening the audience.