Assignment One; Task Two - Understand the Styles and Conventions of Music Videos

Music videos come in several different styles and are often very different to one another. Andrew Goodwin is a musician and school teacher who had written a book called "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" where he had come up with a theory that categorises every music video into its own category, the theory is called "Andrew Goodwin's Six Key Conventions".
Goodwin's theory covers music videos from different styles (Surreal, Parody, Impressionist etc...) to different forms (Stop Motion, Live, Studio based etc...).

Goodwin's First Key Convention is 'Genre Characteristics' - Goodwin states that each genre of music have key characteristics in their music videos, this is extremely visible in Rock music videos where the main characteristics of Rock videos would be that they would show the rock band performing. Another memorable example would be girl group bands like 'Girls Aloud' would show in their music videos that they would include an choreographed dance routine with shots cutting to each of the members as they perform the song.

In the two music videos above you can easily notice the characteristics with girl band groups that show choreographed movements and shots of each of the members to build up personality of each member.

Goodwin's Second Key Convention is 'Relation of Lyrics/Music to the Visuals' - Goodwin states that there is always a relation between the music video to the lyrics of the songs, Goodwin states that this may happen in three ways : Illustrate, Amplify and Contradict.

Music videos can use a series of images used to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics from the song, this is usually the most common. The music video called 'Riptide' by Vance Joy really fits into this category as it can show meaning through different images such as when the girl is tied to the tree and breaks free can mean that she could be held hostage by depression and can be trying to escape. 

Meanings are often amplified through repetition, keeping it in our vision and memory. This can also be used to show hidden meanings that aren't first noticeable in lyrics. This music video by The Script called 'Hall Of Fame' is a clear example of this. The video of this song is about an ambitious person who strives to achieve what others would believe would be impossible.

Some music videos can usually have nothing to do with the lyrics or music and often contradict the music. A great example of this would be a music video called 'Call On Me' by Eric Prydz the context of the music is not at all illustrated. The video ends up just showing off the female's body throughout the video even though the lyrics of the video have no context to the visuals.

Goodwin's Third Key Convention is 'Relation of Visuals to the Lyrics'  - Goodwin states that the visuals within a music video will almost always have a connection to the pace of the music/song.
The video can be edited to illustrate, amplify or even contradict the beat of the song. An example of a contradicting song can be 'Bangarang' by Skrillex where the edits of the song is often in time with the beat of the song.

An example of an illustrating music video is the Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know? where the music video would be illustrating the background music by including quick edits and the video's motions would match the pace of the music, for example the pace of a person walking in the video would match the pace of the beat.

An example of a Amplifying song would be a song by Nirvana - Smells like Teen Spirit as the video is used to amplify the music that is in the background by using techniques within the video such as slow motion. The music tends to build up at the points of the slow motion and slow during the other portions, in this video the video's slow motion tends to amplify the music.

Goodwin's Fourth Key Convention is Developing a Style  - Goodwin states that across all music videos the record label will attempt to create a motif which becomes a reoccurring style within their music videos.

record labels often demand many close up shots of the artist to be able to create a clear stylised image. An example of this can be the artist 'Lady Gaga' who has a quite strange and random image or the artist Katy Perry that has a quite colourful image that may be used to attract audiences.

Here you can see that Lady Gaga has quite a strange look to her videos, it makes her videos seem unique and intriguing to different people. As you can see from the four images she makes her videos seem kind of intriguing by envisioning different instances of the future and how it could look like.

Katy Perry also has a unique aspect to her videos as her video style seems to be more colourful and vibrant, this may appeal to more people than Lady Gaga's style as the strangeness of Gaga's videos may be too much for people.

Goodwin's Fifth Key Convention is The Frequent Notion of Looking  - Goodwin states that in music videos there is frequent references to the notion of looking between the artists within the video and the voyeuristic treatment of the female human body. 

examples of this convention can be Beyonce's 'Video Phone' song that includes a frequent showcase of the female body.

or the music video 'What's my name?' by Rihanna which shows the constant notion of looking between music artists Drake and Rihanna.

Goodwin's Final Convention is Intertextual references  - Goodwin states that music videos may even include intertextual references related to other mediums such as Television Shows, Films, Other Music Videos etc...

A great example of this is Jennifer Lopez's music video 'I'm Glad' which has references to the movie called "Flashdance" where a woman would be sitting on a step singing and eventually dancing; this scene is replayed in the music video.

Beyonce's music video 'Single Ladies' also has a reference to a dance routine used by "Mexican Breakfast - By Gwen Vordan"