Analysis (Using Goodwin) of 2 Student Music Videos (2)

The second video we analysed was group 13P1-01 covering Butch Walker - Too famous to get dressed.

Firstly, the lyrics and visuals are very amplified with many examples where the lryics portray something that is on screen. For example there is a lyric in the song where something is mentioned about a table and a picture of a table that is later used in the film flashes in the bottom corner. Lyrics are also written on pieces of paper held up by random people. This works very well.

The music and visuals are also very amplified with shots cut in time to the beat of the music, appearing in different corners of the screen. This is very well executed through precise editing and definite cuts. The footage also fits the music very well as the song is very 'fast-paced' so is the video, using qucik cuts to enforce this message.

The genre of this music is rock, the characteristics of rock genre videos are usually to use performance footage. Although it is not a full performance, the video matches this characteristic as there is performance seen throughout the video.

There are many shots of the artist throughout the video because not only is he the lead in the performance, but he is also the main character is story that runs alongside the performance.

The only references to voyeurism that i can take from this video come at the beginning and at the end of the video. They are both seens where the main character is being watched doing something but not directly addressing the camera.

There are no intertextual references in this video that I can make out, although the lead singers performance may resemble an attitude that could've been adopted from other artists perfromance.

Analysis (Using Goodwin) of 2 Student Music Videos (1)

The first video that we analysed was from group 13P2-09. They covered Orson's - Already Over.

The first point we can make from this video were that there was little relationship between lyrics and visuals apart from some short clips of performance footage where the lyrics are illustrated, through the clearly executed use of lip syncing.

There was also little relationship between music and visuals, again a little performance footage where a guitar was used. This is again an illustrative relationship.

The genre for this song I believe was sort of pop rock. Often for this genre of music we see completely random videos that gain publicity by having nothing in common with the music and therefore being very provocative. I believe this video achieves this stereotype very well. The superhero theme is almost completely random and I believe that works very well.

There are a few shots of the artist in parts of the video where we see a performance, but I don't think that these shots are close enough, nor are there enough shots to fully promote the artist.

There is little voyeurism, this could partly be because there are no females in the video, and Goodwin states that the voyeurism in videos is often heavily concentrated around female characters. However, there is some voyeurism when we see the superhero in the bar and doing normal, everyday activities.

There is definitely a lot of intertextual references. The main theme for this video was the superheo and a superhero is an intertexual reference. The references are portrayed very well through the use of mise en scene, particularly costumes. However, editing is also a reference where we see words such as 'Pow' appear on screen in time with punches commonly seen in comic stirps or cartoons. This works very well and the aspect of editing this is is a technique called 'motion key frames'.



Goodwins Analysis

MR. Andrew Goodwin, analysed music videos and found factors of which evident in the large majority of music videos:

- Firstly a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
- Genre-related style and iconography present.
- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.

He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require.
Many of these features are present in all music videos, depending on the genre of the song and the aim of the record company/artist.