Andrew Goodwin has identified that there are five key aspects of a music video that we, the audience identify with.
Thought Beats.
1st Step. We interpret the music using the verses and choruses.
2nd Step. We look at the voice within the song, artists voices can very often be distinguished from one another and can be extremely unique.
3rd Step. The story the artist is telling within the song, this means the artist is to be known as the storyteller, telling the story of the song through the vocals, the music video can interpret the story literally, amplify the story, or it can also interpret the story disjunctively.
Narrative and Performance.
Goodwin believes that we make up our own idea of the messages being constructed in the song from a basic understanding.
The narrative of the song and the performance of the artist work together to keep the audience interested and the music video engaging, when the artist themselves performs in the music video this is often seen as more authentic and original to the audience, even if they are miming.
 |
Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U.
|
Star Image.
Star Image is very important in music videos. The artist wants to distinguish themselves from the other artists around with their music and image, this is often done through fashion and through performances in music videos.
Star Image is very important in music videos. The artist wants to distinguish themselves from the other artists around with their music and image, this is often done through fashion and through performances in music videos.
The star can build up their image over a period of time as they get more well known in the industry, the star image plays a heavy part in music videos, often influencing the narrative and production of the video.
for example:
Lady Gaga has established herself as a star over the last few years. She has managed to distinguish herself from other artists by accentuating a quirky, kitsch image. She has built this up over a number of singles and videos, now she has this crazy star image its important she maintains it so as not to lose fans or lose her identity in the industry, however if she insists on keeping the image it could become tedious and boring.
 |
Lady Gaga.
|
Relation of the visuals to the song.
Goodwin identified three ways in which the song can be interpreted by the video.
Literal, Amplifying and Disjunctive.
Literal.
Literal music videos describe what is being said in the song literally.
An example by Busted;
This music video uses the lyrics "I dropped a pencil on the floor" and at that moment in the video, one of the artists drops a pencil on the floor, this is literal as what is said in the song appears in the video. This, although being a popular method of creating a music video can also become tedious and be very predictable.
Amplifying.
Disjunctive.
This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored and appears to have nothing to do with the video at all.
I would consider a very disjunctive video to be;
While singing about dancing in a club Lady Gaga is shown in prison, and carrying out a mass poisoning, she is also shown to be making a sandwich. The video has nothing in common with the song and so would appear to be very disjunctive.
I like disjunctive music videos because I feel like they are more of a feature and are a lot more enjoyable than normal music videos which just show artists miming, I find them to be engaging and interesting, I feel there is a lot more meaning to them than the surface would suggest.
Technical Aspects.
Technical aspects are what hold the video and music together.
The speed and the camera movements must compliment the genre of music and the style of the song, if the song is a love ballad , you expect the movement to be slow and more smooth. If the music is a rock piece you may expect faster more violent movements.
The lighting and color in the video help set the mood and lighting can be used dramatically to add extra effects or highlight certain features, most probably the star.
The mise en scene is very important and ties in with the importance of star image, the mise en scene in the video must compliment the star image, and not contradict it.
The beat. - The cuts of the video will normally go with the rhythm of the music, this makes the video look the part and makes it much more pleasing to the eye, it shows its relation to the music.
Intertextuality.
Famous artists will often use ideas they have seen before.
Such as Beyonce reinterpreting a famous scene from Flashdance:
The idea of a flashdance scene was also used by Emma Bunton in one of her music videos:
