Andrew Goodwin’s theories and its influences upon the creation

of our Music Video

By Catherine Chappelle

(taken from Andrew Goodwin’s book, ‘Dancing In The Distraction Factory’ 1992)

The Main Aspects of Goodwin’s TheoryThere are six principles to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos.

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals• There is a relationship between music and visuals• Notions of looking (Voyeurism)• There are intertextual references• Close-Ups of artists due to the demands of record companies

Of the six aspects to Goodwin’s theory, five apply to the music video we produced and these are highlighted below in red.

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals• There is a relationship between music and visuals• Notions of looking (Voyeurism)• There are intertextual references• Close-Ups of artists due to the demands of record companies

The reason that ‘Notions of looking (Voyeurism)’ is not one covered in our music video, is because it is based on the idea that the way a person is portrayed is in a sexual way, usually applicable to women appearing as an object, often in R’n’B videos.

Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics

When thinking of a music genre, there are certain aspects that are expected to be seen known as the conventions of the music genre. It was important to keep these in mind when producing the music video as to not juxtapose the music video with the genre.As part of the research I conducted for this project, I produced a Prezi which explains genre conventions which I found extremely useful and to view it, please click here.In regards to Heifervescent’s ‘Chased By A Cow’, it was hard to narrow down a specific genre as the artist, Heifervescent, produces very quirky and unique music. ‘Chased By a Cow’ is perceived to come under the headings of ‘Indie’ ‘Alternative’ and ‘Pop’ and so this interesting blend was what I needed to keep in mind when producing all three media products, particularly the music video.The main conventions of the genre, Pop, in music videos is: Bright colours, upbeat and positive, urban locations, lyrics that illustrate, quirky outfits/latest trends.

Visuals that illustrate music0:24-0:33

Upbeat and Positive0:45-0:48

Urban Location2:40-2:44

Latest Fashions3:11-3:24

Print screens of specific shots found at these times which demonstrate the characteristics of the Pop genre

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

There are three types of relationships which can be seen between lyrics and visuals and they are: Illustrate, Amplify and Disjuncture.

Illustrate: Where the visuals reflect the lyrics in a denotative form.

Amplify: Where the visuals appear to be a concept which takes the lyrics from a denotative form to a connotative form.

Disjuncture: Where the visuals contrast the lyrics up to the point of contradiction.

Lyrics and Visuals: Illustrate

This is often the most common relationship that occurs in Music Videos, especially in Pop and as we needed to keep the video in keeping with the conventions of its genre, we tried to include this.During the planning process, we brainstormed ideas using the lyrics as a basis, as well as focusing on the timings of song. To illustrate the lyrics using the visuals was a simple technique, that in our feedback was deemed to be effective.

A recent pop band to emerge, which in one of their songs emulates how lyrics and visuals work in harmony has to be One Direction’s ‘What makes you beautiful’. 0:38 – 0:43 shows Harry flipping his hair and then a following shot of a girl spinning around with her flipping her hair in time with the lyrics of ‘the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed’

0:24 – 0:33 shows a tilt down to view our character waking up in a tree, before becoming unbalanced, falling out and landing on the ground. This illustrates the lyrics of ‘What a colourful day, the skies are blue and the sun is a shining, I’ve woken up with a start’

As the Official Video contains content from Vevo, it is restricted from playback on certain sites. To view One Direction’s ‘What makes you beautiful’ please click here

Lyrics and Visuals: Amplify

Having the visuals amplify the lyrics was the main idea I particularly wanted to feature predominantly in the music video, and my group agreed. As the song title, ‘Chased By a Cow’ suggests the video will be literal and illustrative in nature, we wanted to amplify this idea. This was done carefully and we tried to develop the concept that the ‘cow’ was a metaphor. A metaphor for something inside our character holding them back from their full potential in life; something that would ‘chase’ them and they had to try to escape. Through this, we showed not only a change in location from a countryside to an urban, city location, but included running and upbeat visuals.In the beginning of the video (0:00-0:24) we used a whitening effect to give the impression of a dream sequence. The dream being when he was free from the fear of the ‘cow’.From 0:35 to 0:43, he becomes aware of what is following him and tries to run away from his fate. However, as the video is for a song from the genre of Pop, upbeat and positivity needed to be included, dancing shows when our character feels like he has gone back to not fearing.Although we feature a cow at 1:00, it is merely to illustrate and doesn’t take away from the metaphor.1:25 shows the tone of the song alter, to a more sombre and low tone, which we reflected the lyrics of in the visuals showing him leaving the countryside, to escape to the city.To show he hasn’t fully escaped the part of him that holds him back, the ‘cow’ that is chasing him, between 2:14 and 2:18 there is a shot of him outside a shop called ‘Cow’.The running sequences frequently appear and a visual representation of him being ‘chased by a cow’ amplifies the lyrics that he’s ‘never felt quite like this before’ as he feels like he’s almost broken free at 3:03-3:09.3:11-3:27 is the concluding part to the video and show him returning to the countryside but his body language through jumping around and dancing shows he’s free of the ‘cow’ and is able to continue with his life as normal, with no barriers or anything holding him back.

One of the influencing music videos for this concept was Swedish House Mafia’s ‘Save the World’ as the lyrics are amplified through the visuals and this technique works so well in this video.

As the Official Video contains content from Vevo, it is restricted from playback on certain sites. To view Swedish House Mafia’s ‘Save the World’ please click here

Lyrics and Visuals: Disjuncture

We used this technique in a sarcastic way to keep up with the style of the artist and tone of the song.

An example of this is the lyrics for 1:22-1:24 are ‘welcome this fantastic day’ and yet the character’s body language contradict this as he looks as if it’s one of the worst days and he just can’t take anymore.

There is a relationship between music and visuals

There are three types of relationships which can be seen between music and visuals and they are: Illustrate, Amplify and Disjuncture.

Illustrate: Where the visuals reflect the music and fit with it.

Amplify: Where the visuals reflect the music but take it to a new level.

Disjuncture: Where the visuals contradict the music and don’t fit with the beat or tone.

This aspect becomes most apparent during the editing process and relied on us having attention to detail to get precise clips that fitted together to show these relationships between the music and visuals. Illustration and Disjuncture were the two which we used, with Illustration being the most common as it is a convention of Pop music videos. Disjuncture is a often a technique which is used when the music video is, or at least consists of a narrative as it provides depth as well as keeps it interesting and entertaining.

Lyrics and Visuals: IllustrateOne of the best pop music videos to use as an example for how the visuals can illustrate the music is Bruno Mars’ ‘The Lazy Song’.0:06 – 0:18 shows the head movements fit in time with the music and reflects its upbeat and positive tone.

With this in mind during the editing process, we tried to apply this our own music video. We deemed illustration to be a very important aspect of the video as it is a common convention of pop music videos. One example of this is: 2:18 – 2:26 shows our character running in time with the music and the cuts between the three shots being on the point at which the section of the song repeats.

As the Official Video contains content from WMG, it is restricted from playback on certain sites. To view Bruno Mars’ ‘The Lazy Song’ please click here

Lyrics and Visuals: Disjuncture

Disjuncture is extremely hard to find, as it is often used in music videos very carefully. The technique works well, but when used too much, can not have the same effect. Lady Gaga’s ‘Alejandro’ between 2:24-2:31 as the song is upbeat and positive, yet the visuals are dark, mysterious and the zoom is slow.

Disjuncture keeps the visuals feeling fresh and keeps the viewer interested, wanting to continue watching and listening the song. One example of this in our own music video is:2:14 – 2:18 shows an outburst of frustration and anger by a character at the sight of the shop ‘Cow’ which is when the music is fading to a silence from very sombre and low toned music.

As the Official Video contains content from Vivo, it is restricted from playback on certain sites. To view Lady Gaga’s ‘Alejandro’ please click here

There are Intertextual ReferencesIntertextual references can be from a number of sources from other influencing artists to films or TV shows. It is when an aspect of the music video emulates a part of something else, another well-known product.

Ed Sheeran’s ‘You need me, I don’t need you’ was a video which I found to be very unique and so different from a lot of music videos which is quite rare to find. I personally felt that including some sign language, granted, only just the number ‘30’ (1:10-1:12) would be a good intertextual reference to Ed Sheeran’s video.

To view Ed Sheeran’s ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ please click here

Close-Ups of artists due to the demands of record companies

As the music video was produced based on a song from a royalty-free music downloading website called Jamendo, the artist does not feature in the video. We instead used an actor called Usman to be the character in the video who acts as if he is the artist, Heifervescent. As he is the main character and the narrative revolves around him, we used frequent close-ups to not only adhere to this aspect of Goodwin’s theory, but to follow conventions of the Pop genre.Often, close-ups show the character stationary, which is what we included at 2:56-3:00 to use conventions of existing media products. 1:15-1:17 is a prime example of when we integrate a close-up of Usman into the video, to not only progress the narrative, but to follow the convention of meeting the demands of the record company. This shot amplifies the conventions by linking an illustration of the music through visuals with the close-up shot.