Andrew Goodwin5 Theories of Music Videos

By Isaac Harvey

All videos mentioned can be clicked on and you can go straight to the video.

Lyrics and Visuals This is a direct or opposite link between the lyrics and the

on screen narrative or performance. This would refer to the way that the lyrics are shown on the screen.

An example of a music video that has clear references to the lyrics throughout the song is Lady Gaga - Bad Romance. The video is narrative based. Throughout the video there are mentions to the lyrics 'Bad Romance‘. Since these lyrics are heard, we see frequent shots of actions the audience would consider to be bad romance e.g. bidding for Lady Gaga as a prostitute, forcing her to drink some sort of liquid and Lady Gaga performing to the 'pimps'.

Music and Visuals The beat and the actual instrumental of the

music is a direct link rather than the musicians vocals. There is usually a direct link between the visual and the music or edit/cut to the music itself.

In Manowar - Die For Metal the music is at the same pace as the video. You can straight away see this from the beginning of the video.

Demands of the Music Label Music labels sell the artist by often wanting a lot of close up

shots. In music videos artists may develop a motif that can be

subtle however some other artists may have a more recognisable motif which helps them gain recognition.

In Miley Cyrus – Can't Be Tamed there are many close ups of her lip syncing to the song. These close ups of her sell the video and the song.

The Notion of Looking The notion of looking is the repeated reference to

looking presented in music videos. In Pink - Who Knew Pink frequently looks towards

the camera, by doing this it looks like she is the narrator of the story unfolding between the young couple. The couple have eye contact between themselves. As the audience we look on as the third person to work out what is happening.

Voyeurism Voyeurism of the female body is used in a wide range of

music videos. A great example of voyeurism is

Beyoncé - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It). This is because: Throughout the video there are three attractive women dancing, There is a lot of skin which is shown most of the time. The main focus of the video is the women's bodies. The women's legs stand out as they is a black and white

background. The only thing within the set is Beyoncé and two other dancers

this gets all of our attention on the women’s dance moves.

Intertextuality Intertextuality is commonly used in music videos to create a

familiarity with the video to the audience. This is done by using references to other media texts, such as scenes or styles from films, video games, or fashion and photography. It can be either be a sign of respect, or as a sign of mockery.

In Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication it has references to video games. This would be used to gain a wider audience by getting into more younger people's taste.

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