Andrew Goodwin's Theory

In Andrew Goodwin's theory, it states there are 5 key aspects in a music video:

• Thought beats (seeing the sound)
• Relationship of visuals to the song
• Narrative and performance 
• Technical aspects of the video
• The Star image (making the artist centre of attention)

This can be demonstrated through the music video 'Gold Digger' by Kanye West:

The Star Image - In the music video Kanye West is the centre of attention majority of the time.

Relationship of Visuals to the Song - In the song the lyrics 'baby by busta' are said and this is then directly related to the image in the video.

Again, this screenshot shows the relationship of visuals to the song, as in the song it says 'I know somebody paying child support for one of his kids' and this is directly related to the visual of the kid.







Andrew Goodwin also agrees with Laura Mulvey's theory of The Gaze. He talks about the voyeuristic treatment which shows that by filming certain features of men and women in a sexual way, it creates an interest and attraction to the viewers.




The voyeuristic treatment can be shown here as close ups of this women is irrelevant but creates attention to the male viewers.

Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze Theory

The concept of the gaze is one that deals with how the audience views the people represented in the video. This theory consists of three different gazes:

• That of the person behind the camera.
• That of the characters within the video itself.
• The gaze of the viewer.

A music video which uses this theory is 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke.

Throughout this music video the women are portrayed as objects rather than people and are arguably the main focus of the video due to their revealing outfits and their bodies.

Having girls such as these creates a talking point to viewers, both male and female, as male viewers talk about the girls and their attractiveness, and the female viewers talk about sexism and even though it may give the video a bad image, it creates an awareness and makes the video even more popular on YouTube and social media. 

The screenshots I took below demonstrate how the women are portrayed throughout the video:

Great Music Videos - Shake It Off

Shake It Off by Taylor Swift has become a massive hit with over 1 billion views as it creates so many hot talking points within the video to appeal to a wide audience. It includes several different genres of dance styles, such as Jazz, Hip Hop, Ballet and Cheerleader, which again appeals to a wide audience as fans of these genres will be interested in this video.

Taylor Swift performing her song demonstrating ballet.

 She then begins to perform her song whilst demonstrating Hip Hop.

 Here Taylor Swift is imitating Lady Gaga from one of her music videos.

Taylor Swift performing to Jazz.

Here Taylor Swift recreates the scene from Nicki Minaj's Anaconda.

This creates a talking point for social media and gives fans of Nicki Minaj reason to watch the video.

Here Taylor is dancing in the form of Cheerleader.









Taylor Swift performs all theses different genres of music and imitates all these different artists to create an interest with the artists fan base whom she is imitating. Some people would argue she is taking the mick out of the artists that she is imitating, however this is a clever way to create a hot talking point around the Shake It Off music video, which then allows the videos publicity to increase.

Great Music Videos - Rap God

Rap God by Eminem is one of my favourite music videos as it parodies several famous TV shows, films and characters such as Max Headroom, The Matrix, The Walking Dead, Pong and Super Mario Bros. This creates an interest for fans of these shows and characters which then gives more reason for people to want to watch the video, even if they are not fans of Eminem or the music genre. It also becomes a talking point and begins to trend on social media which is a massive platform to advertise the video on. This is one of the reasons 'Rap God' has received 235 million views on YouTube and is such a success.

Here Eminem parodies Max Headroom. We can see he has modernised the recreation to appeal to a younger generation.

Eminem then begins to parody The Matrix and again modify it to add his own twist to the recreation.

Here we can see a cameo of the game Pong.

And then a cameo of the game Super Mario Bros. This appeals to a younger generation who played or remembers playing these retro games.

He then includes footage from The Walking Dead which has recently become a hit TV show which therefore creates an interest to a wide audience of people.

Finally we can see Eminem cleverly imitating the game Portal.

Rock Music Videos

U2 - Song For Someone















Aerosmith - Crazy















Linkin Park - Numb











These three rock music videos share the same characteristics as each other as they are all part of the rock music genre. The generic conventions of the rock music genre are that the videos are narrative based and show cameos of the artists within the video. The videos follow Andrew Goodwin's theory of demonstrating genre characteristics as the artists and actors dress in a 'rock' fashion to display the music genre.

Hip Hop Music Videos

Eminem - Rap God

Kid Cudi - Day 'n' Night

Jay-Z - 99 Problems












These three videos are by big Hip Hop artists, Jay Z, Kid Cudi and Eminem. These videos relate to each other and show generic conventions of the Hip Hop genre as in all videos it features the artist of the song. This is because it follows Andrew Goodwin's theory of 'The Star' in which the artist is shown as the main viewing point. Also as these artists are very big and popular, they have a very large fan base and audience that want to see them in their own video performing to their own song.

Alternative Music Videos

The Killers - Read My Mind
















Coldplay - Yellow














Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine?














The Killers, Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys are all big alternative music artists. Alternative music videos tend to be performance based focusing on the artist or lead singer of the band. There is no storyline to the video in itself however the music may be based around a situation that has occurred in the artists life.
The music video creates interest to viewers as they want to see the artists performing their own song, and the clever use of camera techniques keeps the video entertaining.

Music Video Director - Nabil Elderkin

Nabil Elderkin

Nabil has worked on famous music videos such as:

Alt-J - Hunger Of The Pine

Foals - Bad Habit

Arctic Monkeys - Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?











Nabil's work on music videos tend to portray a storyline. In both Hunger Of The Pine and Bad Habit Nabil portrays a storyline in the form of an analogy. However in Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High it is still a narrative based video.
The storyline in these videos may not be so clear to see, this is done so large audiences can relate to the story as it leaves them to guess the storyline and adjust it to suit themselves, therefore giving interest to the video.

Animation Music Videos

An example of this is 'Feel Good Inc.' by The Gorillaz:

The Gorillaz are uniquely recognised for consisting of 4 animated characters, 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hoobs. Therefore all their music videos are animated to show their virtual characters.

In this screenshot we can see characters lying on the floor, this represents all the people that have already been 'dumbed down', whilst only the band members have been awakened.

 Even in animation music videos there is still lip syncing and playing of instruments. In this screenshot we can see one of the Gorillaz characters playing his guitar.

 Here 2D is yelling at the people that are sleeping through a megaphone in an urge to awaken them.

 There are still several varieties of camera angles used in animation videos to keep the audience entertained. In this screenshot we can see 2D shouting at the sleeping people in a different angle to the previous screenshot.

We can now understand 2D is trapped in this windmill in which he cannot escape from.

Here we can see 2D trapped in this viewing room in which he can only see this omnipotent image surrounding him in the room. This drives him into a hypnotic frenzy in which he tries to resist the urge to become 'dumbed down'.

He then begins to repeat 'feel good' to stop himself becoming 'dumbed down'.


Even though this is an animation which seems to be pointless, there is a story to it as well, which shows animation can also involve a narrative.

or

'Heartless' by Kanye West:

 'Heartless' by Kanye West is great demonstration of an animation music video as it includes a lot of quick transitions, camera angles, and costume changes.

In these two screenshots we see the director and artist of Heartless, Hype Williams and Kanye West.

 Various camera angles are used in this video, such as a close up shown from this screenshot, even though the video is animated the director still uses a variety of camera angles.

 This video isn't purely lip syncing from Kanye, it contains other scenes, such as the one shown from this screenshot, to keep the audience entertained.

Even though this video is animation, it is very realistic as the smoke effect from the cigarette looks realistic as well as the costume choice as it represents Kanye's image.

Animations include a variety of costume changes and scene changes as we can see from this screenshot.

Concept Music Videos

Concept videos are based around a single idea or concept and are usually unusual and obscure, even surreal for the audience. This unusual content is an attraction to many consumers, which draws them in.

An example of this is 'Chandelier' by Sia:

These screenshots demonstrate the unusualness in choreography and video.

Throughout the video, the child, Maddie Ziegler, is displayed wearing a light blonde wig. This represents Sia as on her album she is shown with this wig and the audience recognises her by the wig. This demonstrates a concept video as there is no real storyline involved.

Cameo Music Videos

Cameo music videos is when the main focus of the music video is not the artist but an actor or other celebrity, and the artist features in the music video for segments of lip syncing. This can also be similar to a narrative music video as it tends to have a story to it.

An example of this is 'Love The Way You Lie' by Eminem and Rihanna, in which the main focus is on Dominic Monaghan and Megan Fox:

The primary storyline is demonstrated by the actors instead of the artists.

Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan

The storyline highlights an issue on domestic violence and shows the audience this couple going through phases of bad and good.

This is a cameo music video and from this screenshot we can see Rihanna singing parts of her verse.








Here Eminem is shown singing his verse.

The storyline is concluded by the relationship breaking up, which is represented by the house burning down to signify how the relationship burnt down.

This shows how several varieties of music videos can be used in one, such as performance, cameo and narrative are used in this music video.