Andrew Goodwin's Theory of Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin came up with a theory of what people expect and want to see in music videos. The theory identifies five elements that are crucial for a successful music video:

• Thought beats- seeing the beat
• A relationship between the narrative and the performance
• The star's trademark
• Multiple close-ups of the main artist
• Technical aspects

Thought Beats- Seeing the beat

With looking at the idea of 'cutting' during editing, Goodwin argued that there should be a relationship between the song and the editing. Cuts should be made in time to the beat, and in some cases, during each chorus of the song images and colours are repeated to emphasize the repetition of the tune or beat. 

A good example of this is the music video for Just One Yesterday by Fall Out Boy - just before the chorus (0:37 - 0:50), it is visibly noticeable how the beat and editing are in time with each other. They are timed perfectly and flow with the narrative of the video which shows how the song has been taken into consideration during the editing stage of the music video. The overall effect of this is extremely successful in creating a clean finish to the product. Music videos which don't use this technique tend to have a "jumpy" feel to them and this can make it difficult for the audience to watch and pay attention to what's going on. 

A Relationship Between the Narrative and the Performance

The performance within the music video is needed to give the audience clarification over ambiguous meanings the lyrics may have on their own.

The music video for Lonely Girl by Tonight Alive represents this element extremely well as it features such a strong narrative for the performance to be based on, showing the emotion of both the character and the lead singer. The video itself follows one particular character from the very beginning to the end in an almost story like manner which significantly raises the chances of the audience watching the entire video. By using this story telling technique, the performance within the music video creates a solid interpretation of the song lyrics, which is exactly what Goodwin identified as being what audience's wanted to see.

The Star's Trademark

Successful artists will usually have their own style or movement which is unique to them. Goodwin argued that this was crucial for the audience to see as it allows them to identify with the artist, as well as the artist using it as a marketing ploy in the future.

Within the indie/alternative community, a good example of this element of Goodwin's theory is Melanie Martinez. A young singer who starred on the Voice is known for her 'strange' and unique style. It is shown within her fashion, tattoo's, lyrics and videos.  The music video for Alphabet Boy shows the audience a clear example of how she perceives her style of music - channeling it through the idea of a mad, childlike world of her own.

Multiple close-ups of the main artist

The idea behind this element is that the multiple close ups of the artists create a sense of "closeness" between the artists and the audience. If the artist is female, it's quite common for many of these close-ups to be sexualised which can create a fetishisation. With male artists, it can be used in a sexualised way as well, as if the male singer is 'wooing' the female target audience due to these extreme close ups. An example of this can be seen in DNCE's Cake By The Ocean - the multiple shots of eye contact with the camera during these close ups helps shows this.

Technical aspects

Effective editing, mise-en-scene and the appropriate lighting/colour to create the right mood is essential, according to Goodwin's theory, in order to create a music video with a professional finish.



How could we incorporate some of these elements in our music video?

With now deciding that for our music video, we want to focus more on the narrative and conceptual side rather than performance, we should take into consideration how important the narrative should be to interest the audience and how we can use the conceptual side to our advantage. The conceptual side will allow us to make a connection to the lyrics and narrative as Goodwin shows this to be an important factor if we wish to make a successful music video. Transparence's song 'Poltergeist' is about a toxic relationship that is shown to be breaking down and detaching yourself from this previous partner, the themes of Goodwin's theory could be seen as crucial to include as we will be able to use them to our advantage and benefits.