Andrew Goodwin's Key Features of Music Video

In "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" (1992), Andrew Goodwin suggested that there were several key features of music videos.

He suggested that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. Rock and metal acts will often use stage performance in their videos while boy/girl bands will perform dance routines. A band like Bring Me The Horizon frequently uses performances as a band whereas boy band JLS uses dance routines in their videos. I think alternative music artists use stage performance because they tend to be organic and prefer to focus purely on the music. On the contrary, boy bands are often made synthetically with the purpose to attract a young female audience and create a brand through their image. Other examples of metal bands include Metallica and Iron Maiden. Blue, New Kids on the Block and Spice Girls are further examples of boy/girl bands.

Rock/metal- BMTH

Boy bands- JLS

Goodwin also explained that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals which can either be illustrative, amplifying or contradicting. These are the three ways in which a music video works to promote an artist.

An illustrative music video is one that gives a literal meaning to the song's lyrics in a visual form. An example of this is in Coldplay "Paradise" when the elephant holds up banners with the lyrics written on them ("When she was just a girl, she expected the world...").

Amplification is the enhancement of a concept while still maintaining the link to it. The best example I could find of a music video that is amplifying is Beyonce's "If I Were A Boy". The narrative goes exactly with the lyrics of the song but the message is made even stronger by Beyonce putting on a persona of a typical disloyal male in a relationship. She does this by working in a stereotypically male environment, hanging out with mates instead of coming home to her partner and openly flirting with other men. One example of the "amplifying" effect occurring is at the point where Beyonce sings: "'Cause you’ve taken her for granted, and everything you had got destroyed", and in the music video there is a shot of the boyfriend leaving her at the party after seeing her act unfaithfully.

Kanye West's music video for "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" is good example for a music video that is contradicting. While the lyrics' materialistic content is typical to most American rap, the music video touches upon a meaningful topic about blood diamonds.

Goodwin also said that the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist. One Direction, part of Simon Cowell's record label, Syco, often show close-ups of Harry Styles as he is the audience's main attraction. In "Story of My Life", there are close-ups of all of the band members but Harry Styles evidently dominates. This has also happened in Take That with Gary Barlow.

 The artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). Nicki Minaj is famous for flaunting her curves while Lady Gaga is recognised for her wacky and controversial style. She is shown below next to Nicki Minaj wearing a dress made of slabs of meat for the MTV Video Music Awards. The extent to which this particular outfit, among many, is discussed in this BBC News article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11297832.

In addition to this, he outlined that there is frequent reference to the notion of looking for example, screens within screens, telescopes etc. With a particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body; Mulvey's "male gaze" can be applied here. Music videos tend to view women as an object of erotic desire- this is very true in rap and RnB videos.

An old example of 50 Cent's "P.I.M.P." video demonstrates the typical features of a rap video: a luxurious pad, cars and alcohol but most importantly, a group of barely dressed women purposely shown in a voyeuristic way. 

Finally, Goodwin explains that there is often intertextual reference to films, TV programmes and other music videos, etc. A music video that I have previously discussed is the best example to use for this point. The Wanted, "Walks Like Rihanna", includes imitation of Take That "Back For Good" and Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way".

The Wanted and Backstreet Boys:

The Wanted and Take That: