Westlife - Uptown girlThrough Goodwin’s Theory

about the music videoWestlife is a world renowned Irish boy band who were active from July 1998 to 2012.

The song ‘Uptown Girl’ is one of their most famous songs, who's original was released by the artist Billy Joel in 1983.

Uptown GirlHere It Is

What is Goodwin’s Theory?

Goodwin’s Theory is based around 8 main ideas......

•Links between Lyrics and Visuals•Links between Music and Visuals (Complimentary, Contradiction or Amplifications.)•Genre Characteristics/Representation•Intertextual Reference•Notions of Looking (Objectification)•Voyeurism (direct gaze, other people looking at the artist, insight into artists life, screens and mirrors etc.)•The demands of the Record Label (Artist representation)•Is it Performance, Narrative or Concept based?

Link between lYRICS AND visuals

When we look at a music video with reference to Goodwin’s Theory, the theory suggests of links between the Lyrics in the song and the visuals presented to the viewer. An example of this is in the first 2 lines of the song. Shane sings “Uptown girl. She’s been living in her uptown world”. As he sings this, the music video takes this path......

“Uptown Girl”

“She’s been living in her uptown world”

.... this is a direct reference to the first point in Goodwin’s theory about the lyrics relating to the video, showing a ‘Uptown ‘Girl’ and a stereotypical ‘Uptown World’.

Link between music and visuals

There are two examples of this in the video ‘Uptown Girl’. The first one being the band bobbing along with the tempo of the song in the band scenes.....

Another is that when a ‘Uptown Girl’ walks in, and a member of the band knocks the needle of the

record and stops the song. The static sound created is in time with the transitions between

the different shots.

Codes and conventions

The genre of this song would be Teen Pop/Dance Pop, which, put in broader terms is POP

A common representation is the use of an attractive male to appeal to the female teen girl population. People such as Justin Bieber and One

Direction are such examples.

How is it used in WestlifeClose up shots of the 5 artists

pulling sexy poses are attempts to appeal to the female

population. This accompanied with the modern hairstyles each

of them are sporting, makes them more likely to achieve

heartthrob status.

Also the common convention of teen

pop, that of a happy upbeat song with everyone being happy is used to

effect in the video as well. They also use the tale of the hero going after his true

love.

Intertextual references?There is an intertextual to 50’s rock through the use of a 50’s style american diner. This was a iconic setting, a

iconic feature of 50’s rock, featured in films such as Grease and Footloose. Films associated with the genre and the 50’s. They also use other references through

the use of the old fashioned record player.

These are also a reference to the original song by Billy Joel, and hisAmerican boyimage and the image of the 50’srock scene.

Notions of looking Notions of looking is how the gaze of the viewer

and how someone is seen is played with. According to Goodwin’s Theory, women are often

represented as objects.In the westlife, the woman is not perceived as a

object but as a desired goal set to achieve. Therefore, they are presuming the audience is

male. This can relate to Goodwin’s theory as the woman could be betrayed as a object of desire or

one to achieve/obtain.

Demands of the music labelIt is up to the record label ultimately, what and

how the artists should be represented as. A common method is making the artist look

attractive to appeal to the other sex. In relation to the Westlife video, this technique is exploited to appeal to a more female audience, but also to

appeal to the broadest audience without causing offence, as this is the nature of the Mainstream label. A commercial label’s main goal is to make

money, whereas a indie label would want to maintain the authenticity of the artists.

What concept is it based on?This can be either Narrative, Performance or Concept based.

Narrative based concepts are based on the video following a story, connecting the dots. It tells the story of the lyrics and shows the viewer/listener what the

song is about. An example of this is Rihanna - We Found Love

Performance based videos are usually snippets of one or more of the bands live performances strung together to show off the band. Or can be the band in question performing for the camera. One example is System of a Down - Chop

Suey.

Concept based are usually simple ideas that have been developed that have no relation to the song. The are usually a collection of camera angles and mise

en scene. Deadmau5 - Some Chords is one such example.

Which is it?The Westlife video os Narrative based. It follows the story of the Westlife boys fantasying about their ‘Uptown Girl’. It follow each one of them in

particular and tells us their ideal fantasy. as this is happening they are scrutinised by the ‘Upper Class’ characters and are sure they will never achieve their goal. You could say it follow their

struggles as ‘Backstreet Guys’. After the ‘Uptown Girl’ walks in, their story continues but their now trying to impress the woman which buy the end, has succeeded, when she leaves with the band.