Forms and Conventions of a Music Video (Goodwin's Theory)

Some main components which stand out when analysing those of a music video include the; lyrics, music, genre, camerawork and editing, with the codes and conventions falling into three distinct groups:

- Technical (camera techniques and shots) - Symbolic (clothing, colours etc) - Written and audio (music and lyrics). - Lyrics: these help to establish the general feeling of the video, giving a sense of the subject matter. Key lines will often play a significant part in the visuals but there will rarely be a full interpretation. Many viewers find the appeal of songs in the lyrics rather than in the music, this could be due to the lyrics often being 'relatable', enabling the listeners to connect with the song due to them having experienced things similar to what is being covered or spoken about. Also giving them a better understanding of the video placed with the piece, making it easier for the music video to express emotions and sentiments, feelings and intent. Music can provide and express emotions, but adding lyrics to a song adds depth and texture to what would otherwise sometimes be seen as plain and repetitive.

- Music: the tempo of the track helps drive the editing. Particular sounds in a track could also be enphisized on screen, showing a close up of a guitar solo for example. If the music is slow then you may choose to look at placing more slow motion editing in the piece, rather than if it were caotic music, fast, quick editing could help exgaddurate that. However, you may choose to deviate from this, contradicting the music which can sometimes be effective.

- Genre: Each genre carries its own codes and conventions, a viewer would expect to see these in the music video which would be reflected in the mise-en-scène, peroformance, camera work and editing style. Music can be divided into many genres in many different ways due to the different purposes behind them and the different points of view from which they are made, and because of this the genre classifications are often controversial, with closely related genres often overlapping. Some music genre examples include; Indie, African, R&B, Classical and Pop.

- camerawork: How the camera is used and how images are sequenced has a significant impact on meaning. The angle, movements and shot distance are likely to change and flactuate in relation to the music. Upbeat tones are likely to require more dynamic camerawork for example.

- editing: Editing is really the art of telling a story and in the process of filming, you must film to edit. Some music videos feature fast cut montages, redering images so that the viewers find themselves unable to focus and take in everything that was shown in this way, encouraging repeated viewings. The editing helps to establish the mood, and is sometimes used to fragment the narrative. Often enhancing the editing are digital effects, which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience.

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features which distinguish the music video as a form, in which i have covered in the Powerpoint presentation i have create, shown below.

Some other theorists relating to the forms and conventions of a typical music video include:

Steve Archers Theory:
He believes there needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between the narrative and performance in any music promotion for it to be succesfully, much like what Adrew Goodwin has explained. He also explains how it is typical for music videos to cut between the narrative and a performace of the song by the band. A carefully choreogrphed dance might also be part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video, designed to add visulisation and get them noticed, also looking at the 'repeatabiliy factor.

Sigmond Freud's Theory:
This psychologists refers to the notion that erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object, being most effective when the subject doesn't appear to know they are being watched. This could help gain viewers in relation to music videos.

John Stewart’s Theory:
This theory looks at how the music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial, using lots of close-ups and lighting to focus on the star’s face. He sees visual reference in music video as coming from a range of sources, although the three most frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography. Stewart’s description of the music video as ‘incorportating, raiding and reconstructing’ is essentially the essence of Intertextuality - using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate associations and new meanings. A music video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can occording to John Stewart and the mise-en-scene should be made use of, emphasising an aspirational lifestyle.

Laura Mulvey’s Theory:
Claims that the presence of women in films is often solely for the purposes of display, rather than for the narrative purposes, also proposing that this is due to filmmakers being mostly male. The reason of this being to facilitate a voyeuristic response, spoken about in my PowerPoint above, when researching into Goodwin's Theory.

Research into The Music Video

What is a music video?

A music video is one produced to accompany a complete piece of music or song, intended to promote the sale of music recordings - using the video as a marketing device and for artistic purposes. Through this, artist's singing talents can be showcased, along with how they perform, with music video’s playing an important role in the success of many artists and the music industry.

The experiences and temptations vary, depending on what a particular person responds to, knowing that the audience of a music video needs to be considered a great deal. Some examples of themes shown within a music video that benefit from this can include:

· urban drama (Suzanne Vega - Everything’s Gonna Be Alright)
· authority (Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun)
· money (Jay-Z - Big Pimpin)
· dance (Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal)
· teenage reminiscence (Smashing Pumpkins - 1969))
· graphical creativity (The White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl)

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques.

History of the Music Video

Looking at the history of music videos has enabled me to get a real grasp on the impact they have had and how they transformed the music industry.

The TV show 'Countdown' played an important role in the development of the music video industry, premiering in 1974. Music video clips were used as a method of promoting acts that were to appear on the show. As the popularity of these video clips grew, the music industry began to realize the marketing potential they had here.

''Video Concert Hall,' was apparently the first video music program that was shown nationwide on American television, followed by ‘night flight’, shown on a US program. In 1981, the video channel MTV (music television) was launched, being the phenomenon that gained the power of the music video. They launched the channel with the video, "Video Killed the Radio Star." By The Buggles; broadcasting 24-hour-a-day music. Due to the amount of broadcast, more videos were needed to be produced, resulting in them beginning to play an important role in artists’ careers. Throughout the 1980s, MTV expanded to become an important tool used in music marketing. Singers not only used music videos to promote their albums, but also to create an image for themselves. An example here would be to look at Madonna, as her career was greatly influenced by her video that presented a sexy, appealing looking artist, being most associated with music video censorship. The controversy surrounding her marketing of sexuality began with the video for "Lucky Star", aand grew over time due to clips such as "Like a Virgin". In this period, directors and the acts they worked with began to explore and expand the form and style of the genre, using more sophisticated effects in their videos, mixing film and video, and adding a storyline or plot to the music video. Occasionally videos were made in a non-representational form.

In 1983, the 13-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller," was released, becoming one of the world's most successful and influential video in music history.



For each of Micheal Jacksons video's, there would be an elaborate narrative, the best example being this landmark 'Thriller'. Every new Michael Jackson video was seen as a benchmark in technology and storytelling. - MTV had been running for two years before broadcasting this video in 1983, revolutionising the genre and setting newstandards. He used this video to create a mini-comedy of music and gore, telling a story with a beggining, a middle and an end. The interesting choices and visuals in this video are, in themselves, innovations at this time. The general public was not familiar with this style and genre before this music video was released.

MTV went on to launch further channels, showing music video’s based for a particular audience, such as VHI for the older audience, featuring soft music, and MTV raps, bringing hip hop music nationwide - launching channels around the world during the 1990’s. The past decades of music video, whether seen on TV or on the Internet, have presented numerous art works expressing the street life and fantasy lives of modern sub-cultures. By looking at personal reactions to music video, it becomes possible to understand how music videos gain such significance.

Use of the internet

In 1997 the website iFilm was launched, which hosted videos, including those associated with music. Napster was another website which enabled users to share video files running at this time, using a peer to peer network service. Both of which increasing the promotion and knowledge of music videos, enabling more ways in which they can be viewed.

By the mid-2000s, MTV and other similar channels abandoned showing music videos in favor of reality television shows, as these were more popular with its audiences; this lead to the release of the website YouTube which made the viewing of online video much faster and easier by 2005. MySpace's video functionality, which uses similar technology, launched in 2007. Such websites had a strong effect and some artists began to see success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely online. We can look at the band ‘Ok Go’ here, who achieved their fame through the videos of two of their songs, both of which first become well known online.

The Internet has become the primary growth income market for record company-produced music videos.

Advanced technology

Apple's iTune's store is now apparent, providing a section of free music videos in high quality compression to be watched via the iTunes application. The iTunes Store has now begun selling music videos for people to buy and use on iPod’s, with video playback capability.

Following the rise of internet broadcasting and the popularity of video sites such as YouTube, independant filmmakers began recording live sessions to present on the Web - Offering freedom from the financial requirements of high-production movie-like clips; rising opportunity for people involved in music to become known. It was seen as the only method for little-known indie music artists to present themselves to a wider audience. Consequently, artists these days can spend millions on promotional videos, in order to make the biggest impression on the public

MTV officially dropped the Music Television tagline from their logo in 2010 in response to their increased commitment to non-scripted reality programming and other youth-oriented entertainment.