Goodwin's Theory on Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin in his book Dancing in the Distraction Factory writes about what he defines as the characteristics of music videos…

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics

(e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band)

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)

3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across their work (a visual style)

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes etc and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body)  

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc)

7. There are three types of music videos: concept based, performance based and narrative based.