Narrative/Audience/Genre Theory

Goodwin devised a theory that is used to analyse every music video ever made. These videos could one of 3 styles, narrative, performance or concept based. On the other hand, some videos could harbour more than one of these styles. Goodwin’s theory has several principles that he says occur in every music video made. These principles are:  

·         Genre characteristics

·         Is there any reference to the notion of looking?

·         What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals?

·         Are there any intertextual references?

·         Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?

·         What is the relationship between music and visuals?

Andrew Goodwin has suggested in every music video there is some reference to ‘looking’. This can include for example, screens within screens, telescope, eyes, mirrors, looking glasses, direct and indirect address and voyeurism. The notion of looking is seen very clearly in Miley Cyrus’s video ‘Can’t be Tamed’. Her video is full of voyeurism, as she has very sexy, revelling outfits on, she is intimate with the dances around her and her dancing is bordering on burlesque. In her video she is supposed to be a rare ‘bird’. As she is in a bird cage this is seen as the notion of looking as you put something in a cage to look at it. Throughout the whole video there is direct and indirect address and in the opening scenes we see people with cameras and binoculars, another reference to the notion of looking. 

The Doves music video to their single ‘there goes the fear’ represents to us Goodwin’s principle of a relationship between lyrics and visuals. Throughout the video we can see how the lyrics relate to the speed of the shots and what we are seeing in these shots. Examples of this are ‘Close you brown eyes’ the shots is someone closing their eyes. Right the way through music videos there is some kind of relationship between lyrics and visuals in Lady Gaga’s first video ‘Just Dance!’ every time she sung the words ‘just dance’ there would be some visual representation of dancing.  

  

There are several types of intertextual reference. The first one is intertextuality and cinema where the music video is made to look like a film. Madonna represents this reference with her music video ‘material girls’ where her style is very similar to a film called ‘gentlemen prefer blondes’.
Another intertextuality is video games. The influence of video games will predominate with younger audiences. The RedHot Chilli Peppers do this in their video for ‘Californication’. This is good for music directors because they get make a world without actually having to. However this type of video will be very difficult for me to recreate because of the limited software available to us.
Intertextuality and photography/fashion is represented in George Michaels video ‘Freedom’.

 John Stuart’s description of the music video is “incorporating, reading and reconstructing”. This is essentially the essence of intertextuality.