Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin created a theory based on what he believes about music videos. He states there are key aspects to music videos. 

• All genres have characteristics.
• Relationship between the song and the visuals.
• Star image (protagonist), lots of camera shots making the artist the centre of attention.
• Intertextuality.
• Women are often sexualised.

Genre Characteristics

The audience could often distinguish the genre of a music video by the elements incorporated into it. Different genres always contain similar features.  

For example in RnB music videos, there tends to be the artist singing about love or a relationship to their partner or the person they want to be with. 

There is also often a lot of dance sequences in the music videos for RnB songs.

Relationships Between Music and The Visuals

Goodwin insisted that there was 3 ways to create a connection between the song and the visuals. This is through:

• Illustration- This is commonly used as it is the simplest and easiest method. It literally means to show the lyrics in a visual form. 

Amplification- This involves using connotations to demonstrate the story. In Beyonce's video for 'Hold Up', she reveals to the world that Jay-Z cheated on her. In the video she shows how she felt insane but had to pretend like nothing was wrong to the whole world. It begins with her inner monologue, talking about how she's going crazy and cannot stop worrying about if he cheated. Whilst you hear all this she is completely submerged in water, at the end she asks "have you cheated" as she opens a door and all the water flows out. This is showing that she was drowning in her thoughts then when she finally let out her worries, her head was clear. However you then see, as she is walking down the road, she smashes up cars, whilst keeps a massive grin on her face and skips down the road. However in the end she shows how you cannot keep things in forever and you see lots of explosions in the background, signifying that eventually you will loose control of your emotions. The video is then ended by her letting her anger show in her expression and hitting the camera, causing it to brake. 

• Disjuncture- Involves intentionally ignoring the content and genre of the song, and creates a whole new set of meanings. Often it does not make much sense. In the video to 'Dancing(Again)' by Eats Everything, there is a lot of dancing in the video, which clearly links to the song. However, it also mainly features two warehouse workers dressing up as famous Hollywood film characters. It clearly has no link to the song, and also does not make any sense whatsoever.

Gender Representation

Most music videos, whether the female is the artist or just a character in the music video, present women as sexual objects. This could be through showing them wearing minimal clothing or showing them being centered around their boyfriend etc. 

'Hold You Down' by DJ Khalid ft. Chris Brown, August Alsina, Jeremih and Future, supports this theory. In the music video the males are clearly singing about girls and every so often you see a long shot of the girls that they are talking about. If they are not in a bikini, they are dressed in skimpy outfits or look very done up. You only see some shots of the males and the females together. Every so often when they are in the same shots, the male is made to look in some way superior to the female. Either by throwing money at her, as if she cannot provide for herself and needs a man to financially support her; or as in the shot above, visually display the hierarchy. In the medium shot above, you can see that the female is placed lower than Chris Brown in the shot. He is also holding her. It represents her as inferior and again supports the stereotype of the male always supporting the female. 

Star Image

Goodwin referred to the image of the artist as a vital element in music videos. This is down to the fact that they are what attracts the audience to the music video and make it more appealing. The director will lots of close-up shots and other type of shots to ensure that the artist is the centre of attention.

In Ariana Grande's video for 'Side To Side' the director uses a lot of close up shots to create a lot of attention on her. They also insured that even in shots with other people in she is still centre of attention, as seen in the medium shot above, there is a shallow focus around her.

Intertexuality

Andrew Goodwin noticed that often in music videos there is some kind of reference to another media product. Whether it be a another song, a film, a TV programme etc. 

In the music video for 'Beauty and a Beat' by Justin Bieber, in the intro to the video there is a quick but significant reference to the game Just Dance 4. This is because this song is featured in the game and allows the audience to learn the dance moves for the song. Therefore they made a quick reference to it, just to provide the audience with a hint that they could find this song on the game. It would also influence a lot of the audience, especially his younger fans, to buy the game as they will think that they should get the game because Justin Bieber has it in his music video, so they must have it too.