ANDREW GOODWIN AND MUSIC VIDEOS

“Music videos ignore common narrative as they

are essentially advertisement. As consumers,

we make up our own meaning of a song in our

minds: a music video can anchor meaning and

gives the record company/artist a method of

anchoring meaning”

“ M U S I C V I D E O I S N O T P R I M A R I LY A C O M M O D I T Y F O R M , B U T A

P R O M O T I O N A L O N E

From Goodwin’s study of music video in the 1990’s

he found that they are a promotion for the artist and

creating an interest for a particular song.

Promoting other products ,films or locations.

Also from analysing music videos he came up with 6

ways in which he believes all music videos are

portrayed.

OPPOSING THEORIES

The main opposing theory is that

music video’s are an art form for

entertainment for the audience.

GOODWIN EXAMPLES

Miley Cyrus – We can’t stop. This promotes Beats Pill

and EOS.

The way in which they do this is by having different

shots of the artist using the products, to make her fans

want it as well. This is because Miley Cyrus is seen to

be a fashion icon that people will want to be like.

GOODWIN EXAMPLES

Katy Perry –Roar. Promoting a Nokia phone

They use the phone to take selfies with which is a popular

thing that the younger audience do, which makes the

phone look more attractive to them. It also shows what the

main feature of the phone is, which is that it has a good

camera.

GOODWIN EXAMPLES

Demi Lovato- Let it go – promotes the film Frozen.

It does this by having clips of the film in the video to give a taster of what the film is about. The audience will them associate the song with the film, which will convince people to watch it.

Also by using this artist, she is normally related to Disney which is targeted at the younger age group.

GOODWIN EXAMPLES

JLO and Pitbull –we are one. Promotes the 2014 world cup.

It does this by having of past world cup winners, to try and

enforce the world cup sprit on to the audience , which will make

them feel nostalgic about this advent.

It also helps this song to be related to the world cup as it is such a

big event.

Plus the artist Pitbull is from Brazil who will have a connection

with the Brazilian audience.

OPPOSING THEORY EXAMPLES

Imagine Dragons- Radioactive – art form as its unusual

and creative.

This is a indie video which tells a story of the underdog

overthrowing superior body, which has a moral to the narrative

which makes it different from an mainstream video.

OPPOSING EXAMPLES

Lady GaGa- Applause – art because she expresses herself

through her music.

Nothing within this video is mainstream, as it doesn’t

really make sense. The narrative is a concept based video

with elements of performance as the shots don’t link.

However this is her image as an artist, which means that

ultimately she is promoting herself.

OPPOSING EXAMPLES

Route 94- my love. An art form for its use of special

effects.

The element of this video, is to not show the

appearance of anyone in the video, this could be

linked to how people see when they are drunk in a

club.

This effect hasn’t been used before which makes it

different from what the audience has seen.

OPPOSING EXAMPLES

Kieza – Giant in my heart. Is an art form because it

shows an A-typical Stereotype of gender.

She uses drag queens the need for acceptance, which

could show what the artist has been through, for the

audience to accept her as an artist. This them becomes

her image, as an art form.

CONCLUSION

Ultimately most video can be still link to the fact

that the video is promoting the artist even if there

isn’t a product being used within it.

All the art examples we have in the end, make an

image for the artist and what they will be known for,

as a result promoting themselves.