A music video theory

Andrew Goodwin

Goodwin stated that a music video consists of six key features which can be applied to any music video, these are;

· There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, the visuals illustrate the lyrics.
· There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, the visuals illustrate the music.
· The contents will reflect the genre and iconography represented.
· There will be multiple close ups of the main artist and a motif, usually by demand of the record label.
· There will be voyeurism in relation to females.
· Intertextuality will be used.

I agree with this theory because all of the music videos i have analysed follow at least five of the key points however i do believe that if you were to make a music video without knowing this theory you would cover at least five of the key points because it is what you would expect to see in a music video.

I have chosen to analyse the video Misery Business by Paramore because i think it follows most of the key features of the theory. The video refers to the lyrics as soon as the song starts with the first line being ‘I’m in the business of misery’ and it is about a girl who aims to put misery on people by doing horrible things like kissing their boyfriend. There is also a relationship between the music and visuals because the edits go with the beat of the drum, which is very quick there is a different shot about every two seconds throughout the song depending on the pace of the song the length of the shot changes.

I think the video is a good representation of the genre of the band because as they are a rock band they aren’t saw as being girly or feminine and the video in a way ‘takes the mick’ out of stereotypical feminine women. Also in the instrumental the two guitarists head band which is a dance move associated with the rock genre.

The motif in the video is the name of the album, it is everywhere in the performance part of the video. Also mainly the entire close ups in the video are of the singer (Hayley Williams) which shows there is also voyeurism in the video.

Intertextuality is used when the band is performing because the background is the word ‘Riot’ scribbled all over the wall which not only is the name of the album but it is wrote in the same font also.

The Video i plan to make only applies to a few of Goodwin’s key features, the main two that is does correspond to is the relationship between the lyrics and visuals and the relationship between the music and the visuals because this is what attracts the viewer to the song, the visuals, and it is much better is you can understand what the song is about when you watch the video rather than it having a hidden meaning that doesn’t correspond to the video.