Task Two - Style and Connentions

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin has a book out called 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'. This book was released in the year 1992. Within the book, Andrew Goodwin talked about the six features in a music video. those are.

1. Music Video demonstrate genre Characteristics. For example the stage performance in a rock or punk music video or a dance routine in a boy/girl group.

2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visual. This means that the lyrics are linked with imagines to either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting.

3. There is a relationship between the music and the visual. This means that the tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects the music video, again by using either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting. 

4. The demands of the music label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). 

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screen within screen, mirrors, stages ect.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6. There is often intertextual reference from films, TV shows and from other music videos. 

Genre Characteristics

Andrew Goodwin states that there are different genres of music use different keys of conventions in their music videos.

Rock music videos are normally known for using live footage for their videos. An example of this can be seen with Bon Jovi and his music video for 'you give love a bad name'. The whole music video is him playing the song live in concert.

With boys and/or girl groups are known for having dance routines in their music videos. This can be seen with One Direction and their music video 'steal my girl'. In the music video, all the boys are dancing around to the music video.

 
With pop punk music videos, They tend to have humor, also known as parody in their music videos. This can be seen with a band called You Me at Six and their song 'Save it For the bedroom'. In the music video for this song, you can see how the band are making fun of the British show 'Jeremy Kyle' and the people who go on the show. Putting humor into the music video with how they dress and how they act.

With rappers, they tend to talk about girls and money or the girl taking their money. This can be seen with Kanye West and his music video for 'gold digger'. He talks about a girl wanting him just for his money.

Relation of Lyrics/Music to the Visual

Andrew Goodwin then states that there is always a relationship with the lyrics/music to the visual of the music video. He says that this can happen in three different ways:

• Illustrate
• Amplify 
• Contradict 

They can use the pace of the editing to clearly illustrate, amplify or contradict the music video.

Relation of lyrics and visual 

Music videos set images to illustrate the meaning  of the lyrics and the genre of the music. This is the most common with music videos. This can be seen with the music video for 'Riptide' by Vance Joy.

The images in the music video can add meanings that aren't always at first linked to the lyrics, This is known as amplifying. This can be seen with the music video for 'The Hall of Fame' by the Script.

Contracting is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored. They even might contract the lyrics. This can be seen with the music video for 'Call on Me' by Eric Prydz.

Relation of the music to the visual 

Andrew Goodwin also talks about the visuals in a music video will almost always have an connection to the pace of the music/song. Once again the music video can be edited so that either can illustrate, amplifies or contradicts the beat of the song.

This is the music video for the Arctic Monkeys song 'Do I Wanna Know?' This song is linked to illustrate. I think this because the music and visuals all illustrate the fact that the song is about a girl that the lead singer is sining about that he really likes, but she just sees it as a game and only wants him when she wants something from him.

This is the music video for the Nirvana song 'Smells like Teen Spirt.' This song is linked to Amplifying. I think this because when you look at the visuals and listen to the song the are kinda linked. They are playing a show to a bunch of teenagers while they sing about being entertaining, Linking the music to the visuals.

This is the music video for skrillex 'Bangarang'. This song is contracted. I think this because The music and visuals in the music video don't really linked together. When watching the music video, you can see that the visuals really don't go with the music that is playing in the video.

Development a Style

The next thing that Andrew Goodwin moves on to talk about that across all music videos the demands of the record label will attempt to develop a reoccurring style ( A motif) that will regularly recurs across their work. They also often demand there are a lot of close ups of the artists to help create a clear visual of style/image.

With Lady Gaga, her visual style is very striking. The style that she uses is very abstract and surreal. Her style has people question why she would dress like that in her music videos but also shows to the younger generation that you can dress how ever you want and not let people tell you otherwise.

 

With Katy Perry, her style in her music videos are very bright colours and very stylish and also looks quite expensive.

Frequent Notion of Looking
 
Andrew Goodwin then goes on to state that in music videos there are frequent references to notion of looking (with screens within screens, telescopes ect.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment to the female body.

In Rihanna's music video for 'What's my name', you have the clear close up of her and drake using the notion of looking by looking at each other, making it look like the two of them are more then just friends in the music video.

Intertextual References

Andrew Goodwin finally states that music videos often are filled with inertextual references to movies, TV programmes, other music videos ect.

This can be seen with Foo Fighters music video for "Everlong". In the music video they remake scenes from the film 'Evil Dead' that was created by Sam Raimi’s in the 80's just with no gore and blood.

Here you can see that Beyoncé 'single ladies' and Gwen Verdon 'Mexican Breakfast' share the same dance routine. Beyoncé had to put her own moves into the routine so that she didn't look like she completely copied the whole music video that Gwen Verdon did for her music video, but the similarities are still there.