Goodwin 7

7 features of music videos

Andrew Goodwin

In Andrew Goodwins book; Dancing in the Distraction Factory, he came up with 7 key things music videos contain. A music video will not contain all these elements, but is likely to contain 2 or 3 of the things he listed.

These are the key 7:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics

Certain genres of music will have different characteristics, for example, Rock music videos will contain lots of performance. Whereas girl band videos would have a lot of synchronized dancing in it.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

The lyrics within the song are normally depicted in the music video. For example in Taylor Swift ‘Love Story’ the actions of the character reflects exactly what’s said in song.

3. Relationship between music and visuals

Where the actions, camera movements and angles are affected by the style and tempo of the music, for example, Daft Punks’ ‘Around the world’.

4. Demands of the record label

Due to the demands of the record label there are often lots of closeups as they are trying to promote the artist.

5. References to voyeurism

This is the idea of ‘looking’ at someone, often the artist, in an intimate way. This is often used in female pop music videos, or in concept music videos where general people are watched by the camera.

6. Intertextual References

This is when music videos show images from other media, such as film, TV or other music videos. Often done when an artists music is used in films.

7. Narrative, Concept or Performance

Every music video will be one or a combination of Concept, Narrative and Performance.