Video analysisMegan Woofenden

In His Book Dancing in the Distraction Factory Andrew Goodwin points out characteristics and features that can be found in music videos.

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). 

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). 

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). 

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). 

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style)

7. There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc).

Andrew Goodwin’s 7 Features of Music Videos

Taylor Swift – Shake It Off

Shake is off is a Pop single by American singer Taylor Swift.It shows many different dance styles and through the video Taylor plays all the different types of people that would dance them and attempts to do them herself. The whole video is about how you shouldn't care about what other people think and if they do anything to upset you, or if they judge you, you should just ‘shake it off’.

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). 

Andrew Goodwin's theory says that different genres of music have different characteristics when making a music video. Taylor Swifts, Shake it off is a Pop song and it has many different factors that make it what it is.

Many if not all videos music videos are performance based videos and usually have a story line that will fit in with what the song is saying. Though Taylor Swifts video of Shake It Off she is playing many different characters from many different backgrounds but you always see her personality through each character. This video has a very big narrative about that you shouldn't let people judge you, you can be who you want to be and no matter who you are, it doesn't matter and if someone does judge you for that you should just ‘Shake It Off’. This goes along with exactly what Goodwin's theory says, as it does demonstrate different genre characteristics.

Another thing that many pop videos tend to use are quick cuts which Taylors video has plenty of. Through the video she goes through eight different characters including her being herself at the end, but it has many different cuts going from one character to the other and then also going back to different ones and showing them again. The video also finishes on a cut and doesn't even use a fade to finish, this makes the video feel quite clean cut and it goes with her style very well.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).Through the video Taylor sings about shaking it off and when she says this, in the dance moves that they have created they shake, to show that they are ‘shaking it off’ so there is a connection between the lyrics and the visuals. Many different dance routines were made for the video, in loads of different styles of dance using many different people, in each routine they have included the dances usually shaking when Taylor singing ‘shake it off’, when this happens Taylor will also be doing the same and sometimes on her own, and then finally at the end of the song there are loads of different people being themselves and just ‘shaking it off’. Each dance style in Taylor’s video has a different way of shaking it off, in their different styles and you can tell that they are different by watching them. For example the ballet dancers are very graceful and wont use a ‘shake’ as one of their moves in any of the dances. But in contemporary, they express them selves in many different ways, and they will use many different dance moves to express emotion, so when they shake it off they do it the whole way through their body's so when the contemporary dances are shaking, there is definitely a relationship between them and the music because you can tell that they are really feeling it, but with the ballet dancers there is a little bit of contrast as they don't dance to music like this and although the music is different, they are still dancing the same so it can look quite visually strange.

There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

Through the video of shake it off, there are many connections between the music and the visuals. The dancers and Taylor dance in time with the beat of the song through the whole video, and also on the bits in the music where there is a ‘wush’ noise, they dancers use slow motion so that it goes along with what is happening in the music. The music the whole way through is very upbeat and so is the dancers, so they go very well together. There are many different styles of dancing in the video but they all work with the beat and the rhythm on the music in different ways even if it doesn't go perfectly they try and make it work such as the ballet dancers, they never use music like this as ballet dancers usually dance to classical music. The contemporary dancers dance to a huge range of music and they can easily make Taylors music work with their style because of the different emotions they use in their dancing. With all the other styles of dance, they work perfectly because this is the type of music they would dance too as it has a good beat and the moves that they do would go with it perfectly. The music is very upbeat and the way that all of the different characters are acting shows this because they are all upbeat and jumping around and enjoying themselves and what they do.

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.

In the Video of Taylor Swifts Shake It Off, they focus on her quite a lot thought the video using a lot of close ups of her face and also on what she is doing so that through the whole video your focus is on her and not really anyone else, so everyone is always focusing on Taylor. There are only small sections in the video where it will be focused on another dancer, but these are only quick and then it goes straight back to Taylor with either a close up or a wide angled shot showing her in the middle of everyone else and dancing differently so that she stands out. She is a big pop star so the video is mainly focused on her trying the different dance moves even if she isn't doing the properly. In every section where she is trying to be a new character and also trying a different dance style and there is always at least one close up of her wearing the different clothes and singing. There is also a big use of long shots so show her whole body and what she is wearing and how she is dancing, but she is still always in the middle of all of the dancers so that even when there is different shots, your focus will always stay on her. The record label will have a big demand on that she is always the main focus because when people watch the video, or listen to the song, they are doing it because of her so she needs to be the main focus for the audience to get what they want to see and to also carry on watching her videos and listening to her music. This also helps with different videos when they come out as people will want to watch them.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.Through out the video Taylor looks into the camera every time she is singing, this helps to connect with the audience that she is aiming her video at, as it looks like she is talking to you. In the video she also looks around at the other dancers quite a lot when she isn't singing, as she is trying to play a different character it is like she is looking for guidance from the other dancers as she doesn't really know what she is doing. A lot of the things she does could show the use of male gaze, but this isn't something that she is trying to do intentionally. Through the whole video this isn't shown until the part where Taylor is twerking, and as are the other dancers but even though Taylor is trying to do it also, she still has her innocence and it isn't wrong because she still really acts quite naive almost as she cant do it and she finds it funny as she is still trying. Taylor has quite a wide audience starting from quite young mainly because of the music she used to do but still because of the genre of music she does now which is pop. As the music she creates is aimed at such a wide audience she needs to make sure that it is suitable for all ages, so she wont do things that would attract an older male audience as younger girls would pick up on that and do the same thing so she would be giving younger children the wrong idea. In this video of shake it off, Taylor is really acting quite childish as she is trying all of the different dance styles and not really taking it seriously, so by doing this she is connecting to her younger audience but still with the rest of her audience because of who she is and how relatable she is. But still by her looking into the camera a lot, she relating to the audience even more.

The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style).

Taylor swift has changed her music a lot throughout her time as a music artist. She first started out singing country and country pop and then went on to just singing pop which was only quite recently when she did this. She has not only changed her music but also the way she looks, but she hasn't really changed as a person. Her old music used to be very different and usually ballads where as now she writes more upbeat music. The only thing Taylor really keeps quite similar though all of the videos she has done and all the music she has written is that she always has a story with her music, and in her videos she is always showing that story, with different characters and people. One thing she is tending to do a lot more now, is her red lipstick. In many of her recent videos she wears her red lipstick which is becoming quite a signature thing in her videos as she is wearing it in both the blank space video and the shake it off video and she will always wear it especially when she is being herself. Taylors album covers have also changed as her music has too. On her old album covers Taylor would always have a picture of her on the front, with curly hair and with her name in the same curly font on every album but now she tends to use different styles of font for example of her album RED she uses a normal quite plain font, and on her 1989 album, she uses hand written writing. So her albums are now very different to what they used to be, she also doesn't always show her face on the albums, like on RED she is slightly showing her face but it is shadowed and on the 1989 album only the bottom half of her face is showing but like in her videos on both albums she is wearing red lipstick which is her signature thing.

Shake It off - 2014

Blank Space - 2014

Love Story – 2009

You Belong With Me – 2009

There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc).Taylor swift for me links to three different movies in different ways, all that include dancing and performing. The first film is Street dance, in this film a hip hop group go to a ballet school and try to teach them how to dance hip hop and the ballet dancers also teach the hip hop dancers things too. I think that this links to how through the video Taylor is trying new styles of dance, even though she is struggling she still carry's on trying even if she looks silly while doing it and this is what they do in street dance, and in the end they are amazing. The second film I think the video is like, is the movie Fame. In Fame there teenagers are trying to become stars and find themselves by doing what they love and trying new things. This is why I think Fame links to Taylor’s video as Taylor is trying loads of different styles of dance, until at the end she finds herself and is just jumping and dancing around as herself and this is when she is happiest. The last film I think the video is like is Step Up which is quite similar to Street Dance as the main girl is teaching the main boy how to dance ballet when he dances hip hop, so Step up links in the same way that Street does in the fact that they are trying something new, no matter how bad they are at it, they keep trying until they are good which is what Taylor is doing in her video.