Andrew Goodwin’s Theory (Dancing in the Distraction)

Andrew Goodwin

• Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music videos. They are:

• Thought beats – Seeing the sound in your head

• Narrative and performance

• Star image

• Technical aspects

• Thought beats -Seeing the sound in your head. When you look into the music and interpret it looking at the chorus/verses.

• The ‘Voice within the song’ The artists can uniquely be identified. • The story a artist is telling within their songs. This can make the

artist to be also known as a ‘storyteller’. • The music video can be seen to aid the story that the artist is

telling us through the vocals of the song.

• Narrative and performance• Goodwin says that we tend to make up our own idea of the

messages being sent in a song from a basic understanding of what it may actually be about. Music videos should be of the same standard every time and narrative and performance work together in order to keep the audience interested .Pop videos uses the singer both as narrator and as a character, and the singer often looks directly at the camera involving the audience. This also makes the video more authentic and original. Goodwin believes that miming is still the most popular thing done in music videos today however it is in the artists best interest to make it look as real as possible to the audience.

• Star image - • is a vital aspect of music videos. Artists want to look unique in

order to stay current and for audiences to remember them. This star image develops overtime and plays a big role in the production process of music videos.

• Technical aspects of the music video• Hold the music together.(camerawork ,

movement ,angle , mis-en-scene editing , sound and special effects).Speed, camera movement , editing, cutting and post production are all forms of ‘use of camera’. Lighting and colour ‘help set the mood’ and adds emphasis on key/dramatic moments adds extra effect. Mise-en-scene, the setting is vital! It needs to look realistic in order to look professional therefore appealing to a wider target audience. Beats - the cuts and beats go with the rhythm in order to make the video more entertaining. People like music that sounds good and not like it has just been thrown altogether