Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin's key features applied to music videos:

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, for example, a stage performance in metal video or a dance routine for boy/girl band.
• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals: either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting.
• There is a relationship between music and visuals: either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting.
• The demands of the record 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).
• There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• There is often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc).

All these features will be useful towards the assemblement of making our music videos and analysing the key conventions which are conveyed in them overall.