Andrew Goodwin's Theory - How to Analyse Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin identifies five key aspects of music videos that we the audience should look out for, these are;

• Thought Beats - Seeing the Sound
• Narrative and Performance
• The Star Image
• Relation of Visuals to song
• Technical Aspects of Music Video

Thought Beats
First step is to look at the music itself. We must take into account the structure of the song for example Chorus and Verses.
Then we must look at the voice of the song. The artists voice is extremely unique and can form identification or trademarks that work well with the star image. Roland Barthes theory of the Grain of Voice can be related back to this. He sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associations of its own.
Lastly, Goodwin also points out the artists mode of address. Songs can be seen as stories and the artist the storyteller, making the music video a two communication device, them telling us a story and us listening to the story.

Narrative and Performance
Some songs fail to give us the complete story/narrative.
We only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told.
Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. It is important in their role of advertising.
Music videos should have coherent repetability. Narrative and performance work hand in hand. It makes it easier for the audience to watch over and over without losing interest.
The artist acting as both narrator and participant helps to increase the authenticity however the lip synch and other mimed actions remains the heart of the music videos. The audience need to believe that it is real.

Star Image
The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Meta narrative which is a big story that describes the development of the star over time, it has an important part to play in the music video production process. Example of stars with the right image are Michael Jackson, Madonna and Lady Gaga.

Relation of Visuals to Song
There are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song. These are;

• Illustrate - Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre, this is the most common.
• Amplify - This is similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video and drummed into our vision.
• Disjuncture - This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored.