Andrew Goodwin is a writer who has identified that there are six key features and wrote a book in 1992 called Dancing in the Distraction Factory. The first of these features is that with different genre there are also different characteristics that are present throughout each one. One genre that can be an example is girl bands and within this each video can be seen to have the characteristics. Some of these are that there are always close ups of the members of the band, the girls are seen together in a line doing the same movements and striking poses. Below are examples of two girl bands videos and both include this feature that Andrew Goodwin had identified.
This isnt just applicable to girl bands because it can also be seen in a lot of boy band videos where they are seen to be having fun and doing choreographed movement. A main reason for this is because most boy bands are not able to play instruments and are only able to 'sing' so the video has to be of them dancing rather than playing instruments. below is an image of Westlife in one their music videos doing the same thing as above, posing together.
Another genre in which there are characteristics throughout the music videos is rock and in these there are elements that are seen in all of the music videos. The main one that can be seen is that the majority of the videos have clips of the band playing their instruments. A reason for this could be that they are showing they are playing the instruments and also to show of their talents as musicians. This is different from the girl bands because they do not usually have this talent to show to the audience. An example of this is from The Strokes and the Foo Fighters, two different bands that share the same genre of music and also show the same features.
Another one of Andrew's key conventions of music videos is there is a relationship because the lyrics of the song and the visuals that are shown in the music video. The three classifications are illustrative, amplify and contradict. Illustrative means that the music video will be created with the thought of using the visuals to set the images and represent the lyrics by showing their meaning. An example of this is the song 'Feel Like a Bird' by Nelly Furtado. The reason why this is an illustrative music video is because in the song she is singing about feeling free and wanting to be a bird and in the video there are lots of images of her being a bird and also actual birds appearing throughout. This is illustrative because the words are parallel with the images created from the video.
The next relation is that the music video can amplify the lyrics of the song, causing the song to be seen to have a much deeper meaning and also raise the emotion that the audience may not have felt without the music video. An example of a music video that amplifies the song is "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter in which it shows two people throughout are having a bad days through different things such as seeing couples on the train or bus and having their bosses shouting at them. The reason why this is an amplifying music video is because the audience is able to see that the two characters are having bad days and are also able to relate to them, this means it is able to create emotion within the audience that would not be able to be created in other ways and therefore gives more meaning to the song and lyrics.
The final relationship between music video and the song is that the music video is contradicting to each other. A contradicting music video is one where the lyrics and song are ignored and does not have anything to do with each other. A music video that shows this is "Corner Stone" by Arctic Monkeys. If this method of music video is applied correctly then it is able to create strong feeling in the audience because they will be listening to the lyrics as there is nothing else to distract them. In this music video it shows one person singing into a microphone in front of a white background and there is nothing that will distract the audience. This is maybe the most difficult music video to execute correctly because it will easily be able to turn out boring and lose the audiences attention or not connect with it which is one of the purposes.
Music videos are able to come in different forms whether it is being recorded or is animated. These different forms can be seen throughout all of the different genres. One of these forms is digital animation and is computer based and an example of this is "Feel Good Inc." from Gorillaz. Even though this form is not recorded it can cost as much if not more than other recorded forms.
Another form that is stop motion which is quite uncommon for a music video because it is really difficult to create due to making the lip syncing properly. An example of a stop motion music video is by Peter Gabriel called "Sledge Hammer". Stop motion is created by putting different photos together to create the illusion of it moving. Although this form is very complicated and also uncommon it can be effective as things are able to be created which may not be able to be done through other forms and give the video a unique feel.
The next form that a music video can take is one where the footage is of the band in concert, performing the song on stage. This form of music of music video has long ben what heavy metal bands such as Guns and Roses, Metallica and Poison use. This form of video is usually easier to make in certain aspects becuase the band will usually perform gigs that are recorded anyway so all that has to be done is to edited the different angles and positions that the performance was recorded from. For most there of these forms of music video they record other parts in order to give the video a story which is shown in Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses.
"as live" footage is a music video which will create the view of the bandeing fun and natural. This form of music video shows the band acting 'natural', messing around and joking with each other. It will show the group or artist in their day to day life. This is not always true for these forms of music video as the footage that is shown and recorded is all set up to create a positive image of them. An example of this type of music video is the from One Direction called What Makes You Beautiful which shows them just walking down the beach having fun.
A studio based music video shows the background of what happens in the studio when they are recording the song. This is similar to the 'as live' music video as the audience is seeing the band or artist not performing but just being themselves, or at least that is what they want you to think. The music video will show behind the scenes of the song being recorded and would create the natural feel. This music video would be easy to create because there is no need to look for locations. An example of this form of music video is Rule the World form Take That.
The final form is a cinematic music video and these are usually only created for bands and artist with big budgets as these videos can cost hundreds of thousands if not millions to create. These videos are most popular with pop artist such as Katy Perry or Lady GaGa. These videos will have very extravagant setting and backgrounds that are usually created such as the jungle from Katy Perry's Roar. These videos are created to hide the fake that the artist are untalented singers.
Throughout each of these forms, Andrew Goodwin also saw that there were different styles of music video within the different forms and that there is often that vary depending on what the genre of music is on and also what the actual song is about. The first style is narrative based and this means that the video will follow a story line, whether it is a journey or someone trying to find something. This is one of the most popular styles which is also performed by many artist throughout all of the genres. An example of a narrative based music video is Whitney Houston "I Will Always Love You" which is the story of someone having to leave the person who they love to travel somewhere else and is saying that they will always love them. This style is able to enhance the music video because it might be able to connect with someone who has also gone through the same thing.
The style that was identified is an impressionist orientated music video and is very artistic and does not have to always make sense. The music video may be in black and white to give it the impression of being very deep and and emphasizing the song. This could mean that even if a song did not make any sense the video might be able to make the audience think the song has a lot of meaning and is very deep. Another way that the video could look is more like a painting rather with it being colourful. An example of this is from Goyte called "Somebody That I Used To Know" which uses a white background and the two people as a canvas who are painted on.
The surrealist style is commonly used by the Aphex Twins and does not have a meaning. This form is usually weird and designed to mess with the audience whether it is trying to get ion their head or to scare them. This style of music video is mostly seen with heavy death metal bands or electronic acid techno. The video below, for example is difficult to understand what is happening and why it is happening when the children all have Aphex masks on in the video below called "Come to Daddy"
A pastiche music video is one that tries to recreate and time period and make it appear as though the video was created in that time period. An example of this is from Christina Agruilera in the music video "Candyman". This is good example because another time and culture is being imitated to give the impression of the 1940's. This style of music video will often be created when the song that has been created sounds similar or as though it would fit in with that time.
A parody music video is the is one that is looking to make fun of either another music video, picture or video and is commonly seen in comedic music videos. A parody song is either an entirely new song that is making fun of something, keeping the same backing track but changing the lyrics or keeping the lyrics and changing the genre of music to something else. A popular parody artist is "Weird Al" Yankovic and has taken popular music videos such as Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and keeping the famous car park setting but changing what happens in that scene. The look of the music video and the tune is kept the same with the lyrics and what happens in the video changing. Below shows the two music videos, the top one from Michael Jackson and the one underneath that from "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Homage is another style that Andrew Goodwin identified within music videos and this is something which dedicates themselves to a certain person or time and exaggerates it whilst not going so far as to make it funny or disrespect the people or time involved. An example of this from a band called OutKast and the song is Hey Ya. This song is a homage to Lou Reed because it shows the same style and format of the singer whilst exaggerating it with bright colours and and over the top movements.
Intertextuality is primarily based on reference to other sources of entertainment and implements them into their own music video. The references are able to come from anything whether it is a book, television, film or could even be another music video. An example of an intertextual music video is telephone by Lady GaGa which takes the image of the film Kill Bill and uses it within her own music video. The image that is taken is the car that is used and there are strong similarities which makes it certain that this image has been used on purpose. The effect of using intertextuality is that the audience would see it and be able to use emotions that they have received from the other source and then associate it with the music video. The first image is from Lady GaGa's Telephone and the second is the image that has been used to recreate from Kill Bill.
