1. Andrew Goodwin’s theory
5 key aspects of music videos that we look out for
Darcie Russell

2. Thought beats
(imagining seeing sound)
Goodwin claimed that one aspect of a successful music
video is that of being able to see the sound in your head.
The chorus and verses are important for this as we are
supposable able to imagine the structure of the song.
Then we should consider the voice of the song, artist’s
have their own unique voice that creates identification
that helps the artists to create a ‘star image’ - I will
discuss the aspects of star image later. Finally, Andrew
Goodwin claimed that music should be looked upon as a
song, the artist is communicating with listeners through
lyrics. He called this a communicational device. Them
telling the target audience a story as well as those
responding by listening.

3. Narrative and Performance
Goodwin's second aspect of a successful music video is that of understanding
that a song never gives is the full and complete narrative. We have too look
further into the song into understanding what it is about. We may have an
image in our head of what we believe the narrative is about but sometimes
this can be proved different. This shows as Goodwin says in order for a music
video to be a hit it must ignore the common narrative that people believe the
music is about and take a ‘think outside the box’ approach.
This happened to me and Laura, we were looking at the lyrics to ‘hate that I
love you’ by Rihanna and listening to the song on my iPod, after a few times
of listening we discussed the song and came up with the idea that the song is
about a breakup and the boy and girl are saying that have a lot of hatred for
each other after everything's that’s happened but they will always love each
other, However when we watched the video is seemed that at first but
towards the end Rihanna and Ne-Yo are showing that they are not singing
about each other, they are singing about other people but happen to just see
each other in the lift whilst they are both on their way to see the person they
hate to love. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMOOr7GEkj8)

4. Star Image
Star Image is important to maintain as if it is not the
star could risk losing ‘fans’. Star image can be
changed depending on the situation but as long as
overall star image doesn’t majorly change its fine.
For example Rihanna’s star image in ‘hate that I love
you’ is sexy and flirtatious, as she is in lingerie.
However in ‘stay’ she is exposed as a venerable
person. These are two different representations but
her star image is still the same.

5. Relation of visuals to song
Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate
the meaning of a song. When the star image of a
star is very strong usually they can get away
without illustrating meanings of songs, they can
use their own ways of being artistic with their
videos. For example, Lily Allen can now get away
with this as she is a known star.

6. Technical Aspects
Aspects such as camera work, angles,
movement, editing, mise-en scene, special
effects and sound all make up a music video.
Lighting and colour can set mood. As well as
camera work, in Rihanna’s stay music video that
I have recently spoke about. There are extreme
close ups of her face to show her vulnerability.
Mise-en-scene also can be used with star image,
for example a rapper will have various objects in
his music video that a opera sing will not.