Andrew Goodwin suggests in his book ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory 1992’ that there are key 6 elements to a music video that all interlink to create the music video in order to make it effective for the audience to gain the gratification of entertainment and for them to gain an understanding to the meaning of the music video or to apply their own meaning to the video as most music videos are often polysemic.
Relationships between the lyrics and visuals
The first element is the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals which can often being described as one of three things. The first being illustrating or showing the lyrics within the visuals. This can be done by either physically showing the lyric on screen or showing someone lip syncing to the words which can be evidenced in Ariana Grande’s 7 Rings music videos with close ups of her lip syncing to the lyrics showing a relationship between the lyrics and visuals.
The second way of showing this relationship between lyrics and visuals could be done by amplifying or stressing the lyrics to the audience. This can be done by having a character within the scene complete the action that is being sung about at that particular moment. This can be shown in Katy Perry’s Roar music video as there are many times when she say's ‘Roar’ and that lyric is amplified by the audience either seeing her roar or another animal within the jungle setting.
The final way of representing the relationship between the lyrics and visuals is by having the visuals contradict the lyrics, or by doing the opposite on screen then what the audio is saying. This can be shown in OneRepublic’s Counting Stars at the very beginning when the lyrics says ‘We’ll be counting stars’ and the visuals show a close up of water dripping down a wall, this may have been done in order to get the audience to engage with the text more and for them to actively decode what the message of the music video is.
The relationship between the music and the visuals
This is very similar to the relationship between the lyrics and visuals where it is able to link the music and visuals in order to create a narrative within the video. This Is done in order to encode meaning into the video in order for the audience to understand and gain the gratification of entertainment or for the audience to decode their own meaning of the music video in order to relate the music and visuals to their own story. This can often be done by cutting the visuals in time to the music.
Genre
Another element that Andrew Goodwin states that creates a music video is what genre of video it is. Andrew Goodwin argues that there are 5 types of genre within music videos. The first being a stadium performance that gets played out on screen for the audience. This makes it seem as though the music video is being performed in front of a live audience in order for the audience to feel closer to the artist and gain a better relationship with them. An example of this could be Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit as although the music video is being acted out in a school gym, due to the fact that Nirvana reduced the flamboyancy in the rock genre to create the genre of grunge by toning everything down, it still seems as though they are playing in from of a live audience therefore making the genre of this music video a stadium performance.
The next genre of music video is the Studio Performance where the audience sees the artists recording the music with in the studio in order to create the music video and therefore make the audience feel as though they are a part of the process of creating the music in the studio.
Another type of music video is the narrative music video in which a story is played out to the music to encode a deeper meaning to the music video for the audience to follow. These can either be played out by the artist themselves or feature no artist at all. Although some narrative music videos can limit the audience it attracts as some people may not agree with the message encoded because the narrative is too set out and clear such as Marshmello and Bastille’s Happier which show the narrative of a girl and her dog other music video’s narratives can be very lose and easier to apply to the audiences own feelings making the music video more polysemic. This can help gain a wider audience to engage with the music video such as Sia’s Elastic heart which shows two characters in a ‘battle’ almost trapped within a cage, the audience can apply their own narrative to music videos like this, even if it’s not the narrative that was originally intended.
The final two types of genre within music video is conceptual/experimental and location. In conceptual/experimental the music video aims to play around with the conventions of music video genre. This can be shown in Panic! At The Disco’s Girls/Girls/Boys music video where the whole video has been filmed in one shot with the camera either zooming in or out, or panning up and down, This is extremely experimental as this isn’t often done in many music videos as they often contains lots of shots cut to the beat. The way this its filmed is also done in a very interesting way which therefore anchors the audiences attention instead of getting bored of just the one shot.
Along with this location music videos are often filmed in well recognisable locations such as London, Paris or New York so that the audience can feel engaged as they are aware of where the music video is set. One example of where this is done is in the music video 'Anywhere' by Rita Ora, this music video is filmed in New York City which is done to allow people who live in the city to gain the gratification of personal identity.
Along with this location music videos are often filmed in well recognisable locations such as London, Paris or New York so that the audience can feel engaged as they are aware of where the music video is set. One example of where this is done is in the music video 'Anywhere' by Rita Ora, this music video is filmed in New York City which is done to allow people who live in the city to gain the gratification of personal identity.
Another key element of music videos as stated by Andrew Goodwin is looking and voyeurism. This if often the reason as to why the artists within the music video often wear little to no clothing allowing the audience to gain visual pleasure in looking. This often leads to music videos showing a lot of nudity and intimate locations such as an artist’s ‘bedroom’ and ‘bathroom’ so that the audience to gain a higher sense of voyeurism in order to be more apart of the artists private life..Because of the looking and voyeurism being a big element of music video it also often leads to the male gaze also being an element of music videos for female artists. The male gaze and voyeurism can be shown in Robin Thicke Blurred Lines as the camera gaze is used on the females body's and the character gaze with Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams indulging in scopophilia therefore making it okay for the audience to do this. And even in music videos where the artist choses to be sexualised such as Beyoncé’s Sorry music video where she is shown in many sexualised shots such as close ups but it has been done in a way that means she is an empowered female, it has been done by the artists choice and helps develop the relationship between the artist and their audience.
Star appeal / Star iconography
Having Star appeal within a music video is highly used in order to attract a wider audience as they often feel as though they are gaining the gratification of information by learning more about the artists being portrayed in the video. Using this it often promotes branding, the artists style, their brand values and portrays to the audience their unique selling point as to why the audience should engage with the music video. Star appeal/ iconography often contains a lot of artist close up’s so that the audience can see the artist in a way they could never in person or the logo for the artist. By doing this it often feeds into celebrity culture and artistic portrayal. This can be shown in music videos by Rhianna and Lady Gaga as they often portray themselves to give their music videos star appeal in order to attract a wider audience to watch, however this often has implication on looking good as it portrays the artists in a way we wouldn’t normally see them but are unrealistically made up.
Intertextuality
One of the final aspects of music videos is intertextuality. This means that the music video often refers to other music videos, films or tv programmes. This is often done so that many people can understand the reference as it's often a reference to something in pop culture. This can easily be shown in Iggy Azalea’s Fancy music video in which an intertextual reference is used by linking the music video to 1995’s Clueless by copying Cher and Dion's outfits from the very start of the movie. Often the intertextual reference in music videos offer either homage or pastiche which means that the music video is either trying to honour / celebrate the reference or in order to copy the reference.
References
- Will Straw, Andrew Goodwin, Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture, Screen, Volume 36, Issue 4, Winter 1995,
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