Andrew Goodwin's Theory on Music videos
- Andrew Goodwin is a media theorist who had some ideologies that he believes are very significant in terms of music videos. In a nutshell, he believed that "the visuals and illustration of a music video should match up with the music and the beat." Macaulay (2017)
- Goodwin believes that there are 5 key aspects of music videos:
- Genre Conventions/iconography
- Visuals match up with lyrics and music
- Star representation
- Notions of Looking
- Narrative based
- Goodwin also had 5 ways to analyse a music video:
- Thought Beats - 'Seeing' the sound. Goodwin Makes a point of the artist's mode of adress. Songs can be seen as stories and the artists can be seen as storytellers making thier music video a two way communication device, them telling us a story and us listening and watching it as the audience.
- Narrative and performance - Songs don't give listeners a complete narrative, we indivdually have to peice together our own breif narrative. Goodwin believes that we should ignore common narrative and that music videos should have coherent repeatability so it is easier for the audience to continuously rewatch In the way we don't with shows and films. Audiences need to beleive this could be real.
- The Star image - Goodwin beleives that another vital aspect to music videos is the 'star image'. Featuring established celebrities/musicians/actors often enhances dramatic petential of a music video for its song.
- Relation of Visuals to the song - Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and genre. On the flip side of this, sometimes the meaning of the song canbe ignored which often leads to poor music videos which have no relevance to the song.
- Technical aspects - hold the music videos together through the use of camera work, movement, angle, mise-en-scene, editing, sound and visual effects. Colour and lighting also help to set the mood of a music video by emphasising key movements of the song for dramatic effect. Mise-en-scene is another key aspect that should be considered as the stting of a music video needs to look authentic to attain professionalism. Cuts are also used to sync with the beat or rhythm, making the video more engaging. Giddings (2016)
Carol Vernallis Theory on Music Videos
- Carol Vernallis is a theorist and in her book, 'Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context' she describes how 'verbal, musical and visual codes combine in music video to create defining representations of race, class, gender, sexuality and performance.' VERNALLIS, C. (2004).
Vernallis theory embodies four key elements that explain how music videos are produced:
Narrative - When she describing her theory, Vernallis suggests that 'music videos don't always have a narrative reolution at the end.' Furthermore, she explains how 'narrative might not be complete' Joseph (2016) and makes the video seem disjointed and appears fragmented like when we see more of the artist then a narrative.
Editing - Vernallis says, in a lot of music videos, there is often disruption/breakage to the rules of continuity editing. Editing in music videos, i.e. special effects is often used as the focal point or the source of attention for viewers to watch, for example; Music videos have a distinguishable and unique style of editing with easily noticeable conventions: Jump cuts, Breaking the 30 degree rule, Cutting to lyrics or to the beat of the music, Juxtaposed frames.
Framing and Camera Movement - Vernallis puts the ideology forward that having establishing shots and close ups of the artist or main subject are both key elements to any music video. Camera movement is also key, because the camera moving in time with the beat or the lyrics is often seen in music videos. For example, 'a master shot, also known as a basetrack is often used to give videos structure and this can be seen in music videos such as Britany Spears 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' music video where a mid shot of Britanny can be seen with several backup dancers in the corridor beheind her. This shot is repeatedly shown throughout the music video.' Joseph (2016) Framing is more dependent on the genre of music, as slower love songs focus more on close ups and use out of focus shots whereas upbeat pop tunes have more dance style scenes which include everyone in the frame.
Diegsis - In media terms, diegesis is the setting of the music video. Vernallis believes that actions in the video are sometimes disrupted instead of being completed, as this can lead to repetition of shots/frames which will come across as more important than other frames.
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