Andrew Goodwin

Theorist Andrew Goodwin proposed that "Music videos ignore common narrative as they are essentially advertisements. As consumers, we make your own meaning of a song in our minds: a music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of anchoring meaning."
 
The theory itself consists of six key ideas:
1. A relationship between the lyrics and visuals
2. Genre characteristics - style and iconography
3. A relationship between the music and visuals - editing to the beat
4. Close up shots of the artists to create the"star image"
5. A frequent reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mobile phones, billboards and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body)
6. Intertextual references to other media texts may be present

Sam Smith - I'm Not The Only One
This largely narrative music video perfectly demonstrates Goodwin's proposed relationship between lyrics and visuals, in this case complimenting each other. The music video plays out the events detailed in the lyrics, most broadly the breakdown of a marriage as the husband cheats. The fact that the song doesn't start till around 40 seconds into the video make it appear as I direct commentary on the visuals. From the perspective of the wife, linking directly to the title of the song, the pain and overall mood of the lyrics is reflected in the often low key lighting and close up shots (uncomfortably long takes).



Kodaline - Love Like This
Demonstrating Goodwin's second key concept, Kodaline's video conforms to the key characteristics of the indie genre. The muted colour palette, dim lighting and performance element (with particular attention on the artists playing instruments) are all conventional of indie music.
As well as this, the video explores the relationship between the music and visuals in editing to the beat. The visuals cuts quite cleverly with the beat as the lead singer is initially slapped in the face, leading into a wipe transition to the next shot.



Taylor Swift - Shake It Off
I've found that the pop genre most commonly creates the "star image" which much more focus on performance as opposed to narrative. Throughout the Shake It Off video, Taylor Swift is almost exclusively centre frame, in the foreground of shots (sometimes use of selective focus) and close up shots.



Jason Derulo - Swalla
Like a number of his songs, most recently Jason Derulo's visuals for the song Swalla are almost entirely focused on voyeuristic images of the female body - links the idea of the male gaze.



Madonna - Material Girl
The video itself perfectly demonstrates intertextuality as a parody of a scene from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe. The mise en scene and shot composition of the video are almost identical to the original. Most simply, Madonna modernised the scene from 1953.

Madonna (1984)










Marilyn Monroe (1953)