Applying Goodwin’s Theory to our Music Video

Katherine Simmons 3718

1. Music Videos Demonstrate Genre Characteristics

Sartorial codes- the hair and clothing of the boy and girl are typically ‘indie.’ The skinny jeans they are both wearing are typical attire for the genre, as is the retro shirt the boy is wearing and the ‘love my bones’ slogan tshirt the girl later wears

Mise-en-scene- social realism of urban street setting and a small, cluttered dining room typical of indie genre

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

This close-up of the girl pushing the doll down in her bag coincides with the line “but I put those thoughts away…”

This close-up of the doll’s face to focus on its eyes is during the line “the eyes, the eyes, the eyes…”

The song is called ‘One Hand Holding’ and appear to be about a doomed relationship which has ended prematurely because the girl does not feel the same. We related the video to this by creating a parody the conventional relationship narrative by substituting the predictable plot of 'the other man' in the girl's life for the doll.

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals

The cutting rhythm of the shots we used fits with the rhythm of the song e.g. when the music comes to a climax, becoming much faster near the end, we used a sequence of short flashback shots. When the music became slower right at the end, we used longer shot duration to fit with it

4. 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 • This part of Goodwin’s theory does not relate as

closely to our video as the rest, as our video is purely narrative, so does not show the artist

• However, we did create the motif of the doll, which appears throughout the video and is hopefully memorable for the audience, so would make the band stick in their mind after watching it

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female

body

Though these shots of the girl from the opening sequence can be applied to the rule and make her appear innocent, we also subverted it by making her a predator, also including voyeuristic shots of the boy e.g. this long-shot of him from the girl’s perspective, as she enters the room to push him into the cupboard

6. There is often intertexual reference

• We used the colour red as a motif to create intertexuality between the video and the ancillary texts