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Andrew Goodwins Music theory

 The Concept:

According to Andrew Goodwin's music video theory, every music video includes the following eight elements: Links between the music and the visuals: If a song is very electronic and energetic, the director may include a dance sequence to fit the style. This is also valid when it comes to music video editing.


these eight principles are:

Links between the music and the visuals: If a song is very electronic and upbeat the director may include a dance sequence to reflect the style. This is also the same in regard to the editing of a music video. If a song is very slow the cuts between shots may also be slow

Links between the lyrics and the visuals: Music videos will often illustrate props or actions in the mis en scene that reflect the lyrics of a song. An example of this would be the music video for Vance Joy’s Rip tide which literally displays visuals that directly link to the lyrics. This is clearly seen in "L$D" (A$AP Rocky 2015) as lyrics of taking the drug LSD is shown by the editing style by showing very hallucinogenic type visuals as the videos progress by making the video brighter or added brighting colours in every corner of the video. In the case of Kendrick Lamar's alright video, the lyrics consist of empowerment of black people and showing the oppression that black people face for example "we hate po po wanna kill us dead in the street for sure" a police officer proceeds to shoot Kendrick Lamar

Display of the typical genre conventions: Many music videos tend to reflect aspects of their specified genre in their visuals. For example, the conventions of the rap genre typically consist of low angle shots, cars and money. The codes and conventions of the typical rap music video is seen throughout the alright video however they are used as a way of empowerment to show that it's a way of life. For example its seen in the beginning of the video that Kendrick is in a car with his friends but as the video pans it we see that police officers  are holding the car and carrying the car forward. This subverts the expectations of the viewer. Even though LSD isn't your typical rap song, it includes the codes and conventions as later rap videos in the 2010s seem to do by placing another song from the album into the video, examples of this will have to be Tyler the creators "see you again" and "who dat boy" videos

A variety of intertextual references: This is when a video will make reference to another media text. For example, the music video for Love Story by Taylor Swift makes reference to Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. An example of this is seen in the L$D video as the whole video is inspired by Gaspar Noe's film "Enter The Void". This can be seen in multiple areas of the video from the neon lights to the videos' location, Tokyo, Japan. A possible reference in Lamar alright video is to the song and group NWA with their song Fuck the Police. This is said as it is known fact the DR Dre (a member of nwa) and Kendrick Lamar are frequent collaborators with dre being an idol of Kendrick. The scene that represents this is the shot of someone standing on top of a police vehicle.

Notions of looking: When the actor or singer in the music video looks directly at the camera. This creates the illusion that they are letting the audience inside the life thus feeling involved in the action. This can be clearly seen in the alright video where he depicts a dystopian world for an African American. In the video Kendrick Lamar looks directly for the majority of its run time with facial expressions changing throughout, an example of this being where he is with a lot of his friends he looks directly in the camera. This is also a intertextual reference to his own album cover. 

Voyeurism: Essentially voyeurism is the idea of looking at something for sexual satisfaction. Women are more often treated in this way through the use of camera angles and fragmented body shots. this is seen especially in rap videos where woman are seen as a prize and highly objectified and simply to make the male/female character look more manly 

Demands of the record label: The artist’s record label will require certain things from their performer. This may be a lot of close-ups or for them to maintain a certain image throughout her music videos.

Music videos are either performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based: All music videos will fall under the category of performance (where the actors dance or play in a band to the song. Most commonly seen in heavy metal videos where the band will be in front of a live audience), narrative (where the music video will tell a story or message to the audience) or concept (where the video presents an idea which is displayed in the mis en scene. This doesn’t have to be related to the music)


References

Bacon, C. (2018, February 13). Andrew Goodwin's music Video Theory. Retrieved April 07, 2021, from https://chloebaconmediaa2.wordpress.com/2018/01/15/andrew-goodwins-music-video-theory/

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