Research Into Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin was the creator of 'Goodwin's Theory'; which was named after himself. He said that music and music videos always include 6 main areas/stages. When creating my music videos I can use Goodwin's theory to help ensure that my music video fits and is in line with what Goodwin's theory suggest makes a good music video. The stages of Goodwin's theory can be seen below: 

1.            Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). This is also known as iconography

This video shows the band AC/DC performing there song, demonstrating genre characteristics. In different genres we will be able to see different generic conventions as this is what makes a music video able to get categorised to a certain genre. 

 2.            There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.

3.      There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.

In this music video by Ed Sheeran to his song 'Give Me Love', the lyrics are very reflective of the images that we can see. This helps the audience to understand and feel the emption that is being portrayed in the music video. Also it helps connotes Sheeran's thoughts and feelings behind the song, maybe helping others relate, potentially also linking in with the Uses and Gratifications Theory which suggests people watch things for 4 reasons, however in this case it could be for Entertainment, which has links with emotional release, which could be reached here with this music video.



4.      The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

 The main reason for this is because the record labels not only want to sell the music, they also need the artist to be sold as a 'star'.

5.      There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

In this video, we see the camera using very long distinctive close up shots of Miley Cyrus. This linking in with Goodwin's theory of the camera focusing on the female body. This is known as voyeurism. As the music video progresses, at around 34 seconds we see a long shot of Mileys legs, before cutting and going to a shot of her leaning against a wall with a mallet in her hand. As the music video continues, we see long shots of Miley wearing very little clothing, before seeing her swinging on a wrecking ball, wearing nothing, and then seeing her licking a mallet. All of this linking to the idea that Goodwin suggested, that the camera frequently shows off the female body, also linking in with the Male Gaze theory by Laura Mulvey.


6.      There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc)

As Goodwin suggested, in some music videos they may make references to other media products. In this music video by Robbie Williams we can see this. We see Robbie Williams in a rabbit costume, having intertextual references to 'Alice in Wonderland'. This is a good thing to do in music videos, as it can link two different media products together, helping either both have increased sales, or just involving/branching out to a new market that before hand may not have watched the music videos. It can increase your target audience.

 

This post is beneficial as it allowed me to understand Andrew Goodwin's theory, which I can then use to analyse music videos. The general idea of his theory is that there are different stages to every music video (as listed above).