Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin is a British theorist and sociologist who created the theory below. I started researching him as his theories are relevant to my research in that he has studied and made theories on the codes and conventions in the form of music videos. 

1) Voyeuristic angles of women are often used to entice male audiences

Ariana Grande is lip-syncing in a head and shoulders shot, dressed in a revealing costume. The fact that she is sitting on her bed has sexual connotations, again appealing more to male audiences, and the costume is both revealing and black, again with a sexual connotation. 

Halsey's 'Ghost' music video reveals a close up camera pan of private moment to the audience that we normally
 wouldn't get to see. Also, where both females are wearing revealing clothing and traditional feminine colours like pink because stereotypically, men find femininity attractive.

      

We plan to subvert this convention because we want to challenge the stereotypical representation of females within music videos currently. 

2) There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.

In Childish Gambino's '3005', the music video features one long shot without cuts or edits of him and a bear on a ferris wheel. The lyrics are about fear of ageing and the future, and the bear gets progressively older each time the camera pans away and back.

In Alt-J's 'Breezeblocks', the lyrics match the events that are happening as they
happen. For example "hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks' is sung 
as the male character hits her with a breezeblock and pushes her into the bath. The video is played in reverse to create enigma, and low-key lighting is used to portray the uncertainty that this creates and also the dark events that are happening over the course of the video. 

           

We plan to use this in our own music video because we want the video to loosely follow the story of the lyrics so that they work together to make a clear narrative for the viewer to follow. 3) Music videos often include many intertextual references and other media texts. 

Iggy Azalea's Fancy is based on the popular 90s film Clueless. The shot type and costume mimic those in the film almost exactly. 

Selena Gomez's 'Bad Liar' features many posters of other popular musical
 artists in the background, such as Taylor Swift. 

     
We plan to use this theory in our own music video as many song lyrics feature intertextual references, so, linking to the convention above this also, in order to fit with the lyrics we will need to include intertextual references. 
4) Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. In indie music videos, there is often a live performance, or in pop there is choreographed dance. 

Lana Del Rey's live performance in the music video for 'Love'. Both the use of black and white and lip syncing conform to indie music video conventions as well. The camera slowly zooms in as she sings, bringing the viewer's focus to Lana. 

BLACKPINK's choreographed dancing to their pop song, a convention of this genre. The bright colours connote the excitement and fast-paced nature of the song, and the bright pink background shows their almost aggressive take on traditional femininity. 

                  

We plan to conform to many conventions of the genre as we want to make sure our product is cohesive with the style of the song and also is recognizable to fans of the genre in order to generate more views and awareness and therefore create a bigger fanbase. 

5) Multiple close-ups of the vocalist to promote a brand image.

In Lana Del Reey's 'Music To Watch Boys To, there are frequent returns to shots of her face.

In IU's 'Palette' music video there are many close ups and extreme close ups of her face. 

        

We plan to conform to this convention as it is important to create brand recognition in order to sell more copies of the album. I also think that using this convention will be helpful later on in the course when we makie the digipak as advertising is simpler if a brand-- i.e. our artist's face-- is already established and recognised. 

 6) There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflects that of the music. (Either illustrative, amplifying and contradicting). Visuals in a music video are likely to be be edited in time with the lyrics or beat of the song.

CHVRCHES' 'The Mother We Share' has flashing lights and edits in time with the beat of the song. 

In 'Awoo', the singer Lim Kim's actions move in time with the music. 

     

        

We plan to use this convention in our music video as it makes the video both more visually 

pleasing and more cohesive with the music therefore making it more entertaining as well. I also think it will be more challenging to edit and therefore better for improving my skills at the post-production stage. 

This research will be useful in making our final product because we can choose which conventions to follow to and which to subvert. It will help our music video look more realistic and believable.