Sunday, 31 July 2016

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

After researching I have looked at Andrew Goodwin's theory from Andrew Goodwin, Dancing In The Distraction Factory 1992, in relation to music videos. There a key conventions that music promos follow to be successful and Goodwin's theory explains these codes and conventions clearly.

Andrew Goodwin's theory has six different conventions:

- There is a relationship between the music and visuals; either amplifies, illustrates or contradicts.
- There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals; either amplifies, illustrates or contradicts.
- Specifically in performance videos there are many close ups of a band or artist, this may be due to the record label and promoting the band itself or may be used to develop motifs used in other work.
- Voyeurism often plays a major part in videos. The notion of looking at something which commonly is at the female body.
- Genre characteristics are presented in music videos, a pop music video may feature dance routines and a rock may feature the artist performing on stage. These tend to be very stereotypical.
- Intertextual reference to other media may occur, such as songs from film soundtracks will feature clips of that film within the video.



Andrew Goodwin's theory can be seen in most music videos. For example, in the Arctic Monkeys music promo for 'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High' shows about 5 of the 6 conventions from Goodwin's theory. This illustrates how it is key to have these 6 conventions in a music promo to make it successful.

There are certain characteristics that are in music promos due to the genre of the music. For example many alternative rock || pop rock || pop punk music proms may have similar features which come from the genre. 
There tends to be at least some performance elements within the videos showing the whole band, with close ups of each member but it may focus on the lead singer. 
Narratives may be more movie like, for example in Against The Currents video for 'Running With The Wild Things' the band goes on a mission, this looks like it may have been inspired by films.
There are not many videos which are concept but if they are the idea may come from a certain lyric and relate to the song, like Panic! At The Disco's 'This Is Gospel' where the video idea may have come from the lyrics 'The fear of falling apart' and 'If you love me let me go'


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