Andrew Goodwin’s 6 features of Music Videos

Sam Jenkins

A little bit about the theory...

• In his book Dancing in the Distraction Factory Andrew Goodwin (1992) points out characteristics and features that can be found in music videos.

1. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals2. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of

the visual reflects that of the music. There are three ways in which visuals respond to the music:

• Illustrate – Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre. This used to be very common

• Amplify – the meanings of the song are added to by the visuals. The visual aspects add an extra layer of meaning. ( this is very common and often the best type of video to create for the media A2 course)

• Disjuncture – This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, (e.g. Stage performance in

metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in hip hop) 2. 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)

3. There is frequently the reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens ,mirrors , stages etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body

4. There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc)

The music video

• The music video I am going to use is called ‘Ship Wrecked’ by a Scottish band called ALESTORM.Their genre of music is very unique it is known as ‘pirate metal’

• The characteristics of this genre tend to involve very upbeat songs with a fiddle medley in the background, the songs also tell the story of pirate adventures.

A relationship between lyrics and visuals

“Hey lad come join our crew!, adventure and glory awaits for you !!”

“With a bottle of rum in my hand I dreamed of wealth...”

“... And foreign lands”

“I took his words as gold...”

“...And set sail for quests untold”

Lyrics and visuals• Firstly the line “hey lad come join our crew” is shown with a

medium shot of the crew is sung along with a shot of the entire music video cast all sitting together having a good time drinking , singing and chasing after women. The group is referred to as the crew. “Crew” is also slang for a gang or social group meaning that the crew is all about getting fantastically drunk and enjoying themselves like true pirates.

• “I took his words as gold, and set sail for quests untold” this line shows a close up shot of one of the women in the video catching a coin dropped from above and putting it down her bra. “Quests untold” is an innuendo, it means she has something that all men desire but have never got (if you get my meaning!)

• “With a bottle of rum in my hand...” is linked to a very simple medium long shot of the singer and the crew holding bottles of rum and cheering.

A relationship between music and visuals

Relationship between Music and visuals

• The visuals in the video are used to amplify, this means that the meanings of the song are added to by the visuals. The visual aspects add an extra layer of meaning.

• In the case of this video the visuals are of the members of the cast and the band dancing, drinking or playing instruments. The video starts with a pirate waking up on the beach on a desert island, he appears to wake up in a paradise full of drinking pirates and beautiful women.

• As the video continues things seem to get better and better until the pirate wakes up on the beach again at night to discover there is no paradise and that he really is shipwrecked! The music suddenly stops when the he looks at his ship to give a sense of his sudden shock, making the whole video seem like it was all a dream.

Genre characteristics

• One characteristic of the Metal Genre is that the band are frequently shown either singing or playing their instruments. Another characteristic is the main bulk of the music is played on guitar and drums, this means that both the lead guitarist and drummer are shown a lot throughout the video

• As well as this there are some other not so obvious characteristics, for example Alestorm like most metal bands are all about image so they always appear in costume in their videos, and always follow the pirate theme

Star Image

The lead singer of the band appears in every shot as he is the most recognizable member of the band, and appeals more to the audience

Star image• Typical to the heavy metal/rock genre the band is featured

frequently throughout the video, but the lead singer of the band (Christopher Bowes) is in almost every shot of the video. He is shown with a frequent use of close ups and medium shot mainly of his face.

• Because he is the most recognisable member of the band this will appeal to the bands target audience. Christopher is most recognisable not only because he is the face of ALESTORM but he also plays the key tar, this is unusual instrument that looks like a cross between a guitar and a keyboard that was very popular in 80’s music video’s and is hardly ever seen in modern day music video’s.

Voyeurism

Voyeurism • Women in the music video are treated in a voyeuristic way.

This means that they are stereotypically sexy and wear very revealing costumes in the music video.

• This video is no exception when it comes to voyeurism all the women or “wenches” in the video are presented as very sexual, they are all trying to have their way with every male member of the crew (even the band)

• They are shown dancing for the men, taking money and hiding it in their dresses and stroking the pirates hair, towards the end of the video they dance around the dreaming pirate who is seen at the beginning of the video.

• In the picture below we are encouraged to look at this woman as there is a close up of her body, this gives the audience no option but to look

Intertextual references

Intertextual references

• the main intertextual reference in the video is the dreaming pirate, he looks remarkably like Captain Jack Sparrow from Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” films. Not only that but the way he acts is very similar too, he staggers around very drunk with a wench under each arm just like Sparrow.

• The desert island also reflects the films as it is obviously somewhere very tropical, a paradise I.E the Caribbean.