Group 7: Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory

Goodwin’s theory states that there are 5 key aspects to a music video.

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

- The relationship between the song and the visuals.

- The narrative and performance of the song.

- Technical aspect of a music video

- Star image (protagonist), lots of camera shots and movement that make him/her the centre of attention.

Thought through beat

Firstly, the step of this process is to analyse the music structure understanding the chorus and verses.

Then, the second step (main voice of the song), the voice of the artist would be very unique compared to others and will give the person a form of identification that can be related to the star image or singer.

The third step would be the story of an artist which he is trying to tell within his song. It can easily establish him as a story teller. And the music video can aid this by showing us the video through the vocals of the song.

Relation between the music and the visuals

There are many ways visuals are used to promote a song/:

Illustration- Music videos use certain images and shots to illustrate and explain the meaning of lyrics to their song and the genre.

Disjuncture- In this situation, the meaning of the lyrics and the visuals do not match. The meaning of the song is completely ignored in the music video.

Amplification/Amplify- This is when the images and camera shots are manipulated and shown repeatedly throughout the music video and is presented to the audience like this.

Relation between the music and visuals

Andre Goodwin believed that a music video can promote a song by the way it analyses the lyrics. This is shown in many music videos when a particular character does exactly what the song says.

An example of this will be when for instance the lyrics say ‘jump’ and the person does jump. Also presented in the ‘head shoulders, knees and toes’ music video.

Narrative and performance of the song

Andrew Goodwin believed that it was important for an artist to be involved in the music video by performing/ acting out a role as the main character. This helps to make the song appear much more realistic and engages the audience.

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

Goodwin referred to the star image as an important aspect of the music video, he/she makes the music look more appealing to the audiences while bringing a unique style to the music video. The star image is always very unique in the way that the character is presented by through costume etc. helping to promote the start’s image in public and also helps to promote the video while creating a public reputation for artist.

Illustration is presented through this Katy Perry Video