My Favourite VideosAnalysed using Goodwin’s terminology.

By Heather Tulloch

1. Kanye West – The good Life

2. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Can’t Stop

3. Bright Eyes – First day of My Life

1.

Goodwin identifies the characteristics of a music video and states that there is likely be a reference to voyeurism, here the woman in the leotard being exploited is a perfect example. Having a woman in the video principally for display purposes and I feel it is to improve the male artists profit margin. This is objectifying the woman and representing her as an object and something to be owned as opposed to a human being. The look on his face (right) shows that he is not taking the woman very seriously.

GENREKanye West throws money and jewels around and flashes his red American

Express card. It is typical of this genre of music where the artists are defined by money, bling and women. All the way

through the video we are constantly being reminded of how much money they have

and because of this, the we will have taken the video and songs as a direct reflection

of the singer and their lifestyle.

boasting about his American Express card as you generally only see people with a lot of money have them.

Throwing around Jewels

Ferrari

GENREKanye West throws money and jewels around and flashes his red American Express card. Goodwin states that particular music genres have their own style and here this rap video backs Goodwin’s theory. It is typical of this genre of music where the artists are defined by money, bling and women. All the way through the video we are constantly being reminded of how much money they have and because of this, the we will have taken the video and songs as a direct reflection of the singer and their lifestyle.

The close ups of Kanye West and T-Pain predominate in the video which is conventional for a music video to create a sense of intimacy. It could also have been a demand from the star or the record company to promote the star which is another one of Goodwin’s theories of repeated characteristics. Goodwin states that there is a demand by the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist.

LYRICS

Key lines in the lyrics play a part in the visual. The animation illustrates the

relationship with the word. E.g.. “it feels like LA.” Also in the video the lyrics are

“throw your hand up in the sky” and there are animated hands as well as “watch the money pile up” and a stack of animated

money appearing.

“season haters give me them salty looks” “Have you ever popped champagne on a plane?”

Goodwin states that there is a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics where visuals either amplify, illustrate or contradict with the lyrics and here are certain examples of that statement. The video is also full of them from start to finish if you watch it.

INTERTEXTUALITY

John Stewart described the music video as

‘incorporating, raiding and reconstructing’ other

media. In this Video the Red hot Chili Peppers use

the art work of photographer and sculptor Erwin Wurm as a theme for their video, recreating

of the sculptures with themselves included.

2.Erwin

Wurm’s Sculptures

Different music genres have different styles and iconography. Although this video is quite unconventional on the whole the performance part fits in with Goodwin’s theory. Here we can tell by the live performance that this is a rock band and not a pop song. This style is a guarantee that the band is authenticity of the bands musical virtuosity. It is also very conventional but also very raw, naturalistic and un-choreographed.

Here there is a direct link to the lyrics and the visuals which is one of Goodwin’s identified characteristics again. The lyrics are “complete the motion if you stumble” and the singer stumbles as the lyrics is sung. This is quite early in the video and one of the many close-ups of the lead singer which develops his star iconography and meets the record company’s demands like in the previous video that I have analysed.

The editing in the music video is very slow paced and uses gentler shot

transitions to emphasise the mood and to show the emotions of the people in the video. The people in the video are listening to the video on headphones

with the people that they love. It is very naturalistic and has a home video

feel to it as there is a narrative.

3.

This man is meant to represent someone who doesn’t have anyone to love

This woman has

someone who might have died

This music video represents a variety of different people and different relationships they have with the people that they love which I think it very effective as the audience can relate to it and be moved by it.

The Lyrics in the song play a key part in some of the visuals we see. Where the people are listening to the lyrics “yours was the first face that I saw” the woman looks up towards her partner.

“I realised that I need you, and I wondered if I could come home”

“remember the time you drove all night”

The song has a narrative and the images used in the video are deep and moving and meant to touch a nerve as opposed to being performance driven. It is showing the importance of love which links to Goodwin’s idea that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.