Goodwin's theory stated there were 5 things that make a music video, a music video. These things were; Thought through beat (seeing what the lyrics mean in correspondence to the video), the relationship between the song and visuals seen on screen, the relation between the music and visuals, technical aspects of the video, and footage of the star of the video being made the center of attention.
Thought through beat- This can be broken down into 3 separate steps, the first being to analyze the song and see what the chorus and individual verse's mean. The second step is seeing if the main singer has an individual thing about of them, weather its voice or style it is needed to maintain a star image. The final aspect of this part would be the story the artist is telling to the viewer.
Relation between song and visuals- There are also 3 ways the song relates to the song and the visuals, these are; Illustrative, meaning the video uses certain shots and images to help explain their song and genre. The second style is Amplification, this is when the images and camera shots are shown frequently and link to the song to and video to make us really think about the video and lyrics. The final style is disjuncture, this is when the song and lyrics have absolutely no relevance to the video.
Relation between the music and visuals- Supposedly by making a character act out or do what the lyrics are saying, it makes the video much more well received to people as it is promoting itself. This could be seen from the song "Rari workout" as the stars of the video are all working out and driving Ferrari's as the song is playing.
Technical aspects- By including a narrative into songs, as the viewer sees the video it makes them much more likely to watch the video if it is telling a story, this then increases the chance of the viewer liking the song. By having a narrative it allows for the viewer to feel connected with the song, as if it is taking them on a journey, this can be seen in the song "Handlebars" by Flobots.
The star- By making the star the centre of attention, dressing them stylishly, and having them act cool or in a particular way makes viewers like them. By having everyone think you are very cool or stylish, generally makes people like you, so in this sense, being displayed as the center of attention in the video, makes the star look better to the public.
Amplification:
The lyrics to this song are fairly dark and indicate that the singer is going through tough times as he is unable to sleep and "fights dark forces in the night", through hearing the lyrics to the song we get a vague understanding of the emotion in the song, but when combined with the video it give a darker meaning to the lyrics we hear. The singer is frequently shown, looking deprived of sleep and physically drained. The video is also in noir showing the black and white emotions the signer is undergoing. At points we also see a child shouting or screaming, but with no sound or context to the lyrics. This suggested to me that the singer is "under attack" by actual night terrors that are plaguing him. In this screen shot I am showing what we mainly see, a simple noir shot of the singer lip syncing.
Illustration:
Illustration is the simplest and easiest to use when making a music video. This is because it is just a literal meaning to the song’s lyrics in visual form. Owl City use illustrative ideas in 'Fireflies' when the artist (Adam Young) is singing and as he says ‘fireflies’ the word fireflies comes up on the screen to a little toy gadget. The chorus shows illustration every time.
Disjuncture:
Disjuncture is the idea of completely ignoring the song’s meaning or concept completely and creating a whole new set of meanings or images that can be put to the song, a perfect example of this would be Cant stop by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Disjuncture music video's usually ignore the songs intent or theoretical meanings. The film usually cuts off the beat most of the time (but not always) This is a sign of a badly filmed music video. The images throughout the music video's do not usually relate to the lyrics used, this is usually used with bands that are already well established who cannot afford to take risks. With disjuncture music video's the band usually take on an image that is the complete opposite of the expected image.
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