Music Video Theory - Andrew Goodwin

In the book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory', Andrew Goodwin identifies five key aspects of music videos to consider when analysing them:

• Thought Beats
• Narrative & Performance
• Star Image
• Relation of Visuals to the Song
• Technical Aspects of the Music Video

Thought beats are how the listener visualises the sound in their head when listening to a song. This can be influenced by the features of the song like the structure of the verses and chorus (or any instrumental segments), the artists voice which helps give the song an identity as the singer's voice is unique. Mode of address is also important in how the listener 'sees' the music. Many songs contain stories and the way the artist's mode of address can affect how the story plays out in your head; are the lyrics narrating a story, or are they from the point of view of an imagined character? 

Narrative & Performance

Songs often don't give the listener the complete narrative, giving the audience just enough information to make up our own idea of the story being told. Music videos should be repeatable and one way this is achieved is by including a mix of narrative and artist performance as this ads variety and the clips of performance can be used to break up beats in the narrative. In many cases the artist will act as both narrator and participant, which helps to increase the authenticity of the narrative because this makes it seem like they are narrating from experience. The more authentic the story seems, the easier it is for the audience to suspend their disbelief.

Star image is another important aspect of music videos. Artists will usually look to promote their own image in the music video and they will often ensure their image is consistent across multiple videos in order to reinforce the style of their brand. The artist may even be contractually obliged to do this by their record label.

Relation of Visuals to the Song

Music videos can employ certain imagery to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and the genre of the music - this is the most common way to link the visuals to the music as Goodwin himself claims '...video clips build on the sound track's visual associations.' Amplification is used by repeating certain themes. The video will often come back to the same meanings over and over again to reinforce them in the viewer, similar to how a chorus may be repeated in a song many times over causing it to be the most memorable part of the song. However, other music video productions may employ disjuncture, which is where the meanings of the visuals and the song are not linked or even actively ignored.

Technical Aspects

Andrew Goodwin also highlights the importance of the technical aspects of music video production, such as camera angle and movement, mise en scene, lighting, and editing. These are the tools used to pull meanings together. For example, lighting and colour can be used to set the mood according to the story in the song and bring attention to key moments. A convincing mise en scene is paramount in order to maintain authenticity. Editing is especially crucial in the construction of the music video as cuts and other effects will be used to match the pace of the video to the tempo of the music, with lots of cuts often used alongside a fast, energetic song, and slower songs being complimented with fewer cuts. This helps keep the video entertaining.

Sources:

• Goodwin, A., 1993. Dancing in the Distraction Factory. London: Routledge.