Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory

As written about in his book, 'Dancing in the distraction factory'  here are the six different points to Andrew Goodwin's theory:


- Genre characteristics
- Link between lyrics and visuals
- Link between music and visuals
- The demands of the record label
- Notion of Looking
- Intertextual Reference


Genre Characteristics / Signifiers:


Genre characteristics are what you would expect to see when watching a music video of a specific genre. For example when watching rock music videos you would expect to see the band performing throughout the majority of the music video, however when watching RnB music videos you may expect there to be some form of storyline, often relating to the lyrics. 


Link between lyrics and visuals:

Goodwin states that the lyrics will be making constant references to what is going on in the music video, creating a two way reinforcement of lyrics to visuals and vice-versa. The visuals also help to illustrate what is being sang/said.

Link between music and visuals:


The link between music and visuals are similar to that of lyrics and visuals. The link is there to contradict and reinforce each other. 


Demands of the record label:


The demands of the record label consist of two main points. These are the need for close-ups and motifs. The whole idea of close-ups is to help build up the particular artists image and ultimately to sell the artist, these are used in a large majority of music videos. The final point, motifs, are also used for similar effect. A motif is a running theme that will focus throughout a particular artist or bands music videos. This also helps create an identity and again ultimately leads to the wide spread sale of an artist. Motifs however can vary, they can be images recurring through several music videos or the artists appearance. In either case it helps to create an identity for that artist. 


Notion of Looking / Voyeurism:


Notions of looking links in heavily with Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze Theory’. This is basically ways people are represented within music videos. An example of this being how women are represented, Goodwin himself refers to women being presented as objects in music videos, once again linking with Laura Mulvey’s theory. 


Intertextuality: 

Intertextuality is the referencing of other texts, be it through mimicking, mentioning or simply copying. Intertextual references occur in a range of different texts one example being music. These uses of other texts can be used to challenge or agree with ideas expressed or to highlight artists or a specific message or image within a text.