Andrew Goodwin Research

 Andrew Goodwin wrote a book called 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'. Goodwin was interested in the visual language and imagery that is implicit and explicit within music videos. 
His theory was whether music videos reflect the society we live in and if there is gender inequality and power relations in music videos.

Goodwin Studied hundreds of music videos when researching for his book and managed to come up with some key codes and conventions that are prominent in many music videos today.

The codes and conventions of music videos that Goodwin felt related to the theory include:

1. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals  
This is when there is a direct relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, In other words you see exactly what they are singing about. For example in Taylor Swifts 'We are never getting back together' video the lyrics are talking about how they are never getting back together and the visuals in the video mirrors the narrative.

2. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals
e.g. Jay Z- Empire State of Mind, This video is all about New York, and they filmed it in New York.

3. Particular music genres have their own music video style and iconography (visual style)
'Typical' RnB videos usually feature a choreographed dance routine. Hip-Hop videos tend to include rapping to the camera, and plenty of female flesh on display. Rock/metal videos on the other hand tend to rely on performance videos.

4. There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close-ups of the main artist

An example of this is Miley Cyrus Wrecking ball. 




5. The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which over time, becomes part of their star image 
E.g. Adele has a huge iconic style, she nearly almost dresses in black at public events and always have very 60's hair and make up.

6. There is likely to be a reference to voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women, but also in terms of systems of looking (screens within screens, binoculars, film and movie cameras etc.)
This occurs frequently in Katy Perry's videos, in 'Last Friday Night' there is a scene where there is 'Just Dance footage' being filmed off the TV it's being played on.

7. There is likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts.
The Wanted- Walks like Rihanna is a great example as they reenact old famous boyband music videos.
Another example is STEPS- Say you'll be mine where they use scenes from famous films