Creative media btec: Goodwins music video theory

Andrew Goodwin had seven theories about how succesful music videos work, he said most videos include the following aspects, but sometimes not all of them. His theory pointed out what a successful music video would need.

His theories were:

• The lyrics of a music video are connected to the visuals.
• The visuals are connected to the music.
• There should be a lot of close ups on the main artist.
• The artist should have a clear star image (original theme).
• Most of the time females are sexualised.
• There are intertuxtual references to other past videos.
• Has a performance or narrative (story).

I personally believe that his theories do point out a lot a successful techniques in making a good video but it is not always the case in some of the videos I have analysed, although every video did support at least one of his theories. One example is the video 'You Need Me, 'I Don't Need You' by Ed Sheeran where this challenges the normal conventions of music videos, yet still supports the theory of the lyrics being connected to visuals and a few others, if there is a video that does not support a single theory it is probably not popular and a complete failure, that is why most producers tend to use these because they don't want to take any risks, and use conventions to create a good selling video.

This is Tupac's music video 'California Love' it was the video out of all the videos we studied which followed most of the theories, it followed all seven of the theories.

• the lyrics go with the visuals
• visuals connect with music
• a lot of close ups on the artists
• the artist definitely have a star image
• females are sexualised
• intertextuality to some films at that time
• there is a definite narrative, and form of performance.

Here is another video:

This video has:

• Close ups on artists
• Star image 
• and a performance

Music video 'getting nowhere'

Here is the video 'Getting Nowhere' by Magnetic Man and John Legend.

The reason why i have chosen to talk about this video is because it is very creative like the other videos I have chosen, and it has an original theme and puts you in a trance. As well as this the video has a massive amount of symbolism, mostly dark and depicts the dark gritty side of London. One way it has been filmed well is the fact it was filmed on a council estate on East London as well as being filmed in the financial district. To me this shows the corruption and space between the poor and rich in London.

This music video is also filled with crazy random moments which still relate back to the theme it is trying to portray. On the whole i would describe it as surreal with a partial narrative if any.

Some of the themes in this are:

• hoodies
• BMX's
• crime
• youth corruption
• poor
• prostitutes
• drugs
• urbanism
• suffering
• greed

To me these tell a story about the London that most people don't know about.

The four main charecters, who are all on BMX's and have facemasks as well as a hoodies, is a great way of showing this culture and depicting what the video is showing (they are the illustration to the music). They are also shown as being there yet not taking action (silent witness). They are also shown as the modern day version of a highway man, this is shown perfectly at the point 2.59 where there is a two shot of both the biker and the highway man via mirror reflection so they are shown as one entity.

I also noticed the colour of each of the hoodies corresponds with its own theme, i say this because of when the hoodies are shown during key parts of the video.

White - connotes death
Black - connotes crime
Grey - connotes mystery
Red - connotes suffering

Music video 'you need me, i don't need you'

I chose this video because is one of my favourite and has always captured my attention every time I've seen it, it explores its ideas in depth.

The video does not show the main singer much, instead its has a person translating what is said in sign language in a very fluent movement. To me this idea is very well done and shows a twist to the video instead of conventional music videos which have the main artist shown a lot. This video has no narrative, it just explores many ideas and themes such as disability and dancing.

This video really uses the lighting to its full potential with the spotlight technique, where there is a spotlight highlighting the main importance which keeps the audience's attention. Other things that are in place to capture the attention of the audience are the flashing lights and fast editing which has a variety of cuts, mainly fast cross cutting. The cinematography in this is very rich with a wide use of all shots from different angles and perspectives, for example close ups on facial expressions and movement of the arms, this is done to make the audience feel as if they are being spoken to directly.

The mise en scene in this piece is used very well too, with a lot of props. The point is made clear and also keeps the mind of the audience with the lyrics. Another theme I noticed was the black and white look, which was quite simple compared to the rest of the video yet still has a profound effect when watching.

All together I would say this video is a new sort of video in which producers are becoming more creative with the videos they are making. This is a great example and works well for an urban rap video, this also holds some similarities with the 'Glory Days' and 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' video in a way that it has something illustrating the lyrics, in this case it will have to be the sign language.

Music video 'glory days'

The reason why i like this music video is because it was made 6 years ago and still gives an impact to people watching now, this song is truly a classic and speaks for the care free and happy life, compared to the Magnetic Man music video which shows the dark gritty side to London  this video has a narrative but it is not a full story, most of it is shown in the lyrics.

One thing I found very interesting about this music video is the wide use of mise-en-scene, every scene has a number of different props and the body language and actions work well. The main props used are the t-shirts which illustrate the lyrics and change to keep the audience's attention, the cartoonist images on the top also show a happy care free attitude. this is creative and very abstract, but reminds me very much of another video i have studied and talked about before which is Bob Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' which uses cue cards in a similar way to which the t-shirts are used in this video.



The song is also very slow in tempo has a relaxed feeling to make the person have the trance of being in a 'glory day', this is to lighten up the mood and the dance scenes are also very abstract with a unusual dance. the reason why i say it has a narrative is because of the scene in the beigel bake where he talks about his dark past and the letter he talks about how he left all that behind and is looking forward to what the future brings.


" And I can feel that destiny is on my side  

Above are some lyrics to show he's come out from the bad life into the new.

The 1980's part 2

This is the second part of my 1980's post.

By the 80's music video's became a prioroty for artist if they wanted to get heard, it brought a movie like feeling to music.

Micheal Jackson's 'Thriller' was the forerunner for the pop music culture and also led the way for music videos. The music video was quite long compared to the ones these days, this is because it packed in a story behind the actual music video, therefore it was 13 minutes and 43 seconds long. it was directed by John Landis.



This music video was soo influential it was called the watershed for the music industry. The video came out in 1983 and sold massively along with the backstage videos of the making of thriller in total 9 million units. It's been calculated that it had been watched by 4 billion people worldwide.


What this music video brought new to the industry was :

• Used a lot of actors to give it a hollywood look
• Used a wide variety of shots and cut shots too make it look more fast paced
• The quality of the video was better than others of its time

Whilst making 'Thriller' a behind the scene's videos was made to show the process of creating the music video. This was included when people bought the music video. These days you cant make as much money from music videos on a whole, this is because people can download the video or watch on TV or Youtube.

1980's part 1

This part of the homework is divided in two parts, one with the music channel part and the other about 'Thriller.'

So in this day and age there are a wide number of platforms dedicated to music videos, one of the main ones are the music channels which we have many of these days. Music channels are completely dedicated to music  therefore they must be connected to music videos. The first music channel was  launched in america in 1981 called MTV which many people will be familiar with today. 

Since MTV there have been many other music channels all over the world, some are exclusive to a particular genre and others with different age groups (niches). As time has gone by such channels as MTV have changed according to the cultures of those times and has stayed successful.

At first MTV was an American cable channel which launched at the first of August 1981 and was the first channels of its kind. At first it was a channel that used to play music videos with an on screen host called a VJ (video jockey) later on the channel changed and became more close to the audience, when people changed so did the channel, keeping up to date with the latest trends in music and knew what the viewers liked. These days the channel also shows many reality TV shows and scripted shows, although it has moved away from the music experience it still holds some musical value.

MTV had also had many sister channels but many of them went independant and some of those channels are MTV2, MTV Desi (Bangra), Nickelodeon, Comedy Central etc. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," were the first words the channel ever opened with which was voiced by John Lack, and then played footage of the first space shuttle launch countdown of Columbia since then the channel still holds some evidence of this in recent times, such as astronauts and space.




Here is footage of the first broadcast and the shuttle launch.


Here is a modern day version taken from the beginning of a show called 'Jackass.' Some of the shows from MTV are 'Pimp My Ride', 'Jackass', 'My Super Sweet Sixteen.'

MTV is also part of the Viacom conglomerate network.

Channel AKA is a TV channel with a different niche compared to MTV. Formerly Channel U this channel is mainly playing music from urban/grime/hip hop culture and is a UK based channel. Many artist such as Tinchy Stryder, Devlin, Tinie Tempah have made breakthroughs with this channel, and also the comedian jazzy.

This is the logo from channel AKA, formerly this channel was called channel U and with its sister channel fizz, but after they were sold and bought by mushrooms TV the both changed names, channel U into channel AKA and Fizz TV to Stars TV

This is Devlin

 Tinchy stryder

Tinie Tempah

comedian Jazzie

Another way this channel is unique is that it shows many videos of upcoming artist which have music videos shot on hand held camcorders, this is to boost the artist's popularity, give them a platform to perform on and to highlight to the public the new fresh talent from the UK. Many artists show their appreciation to this channel in their lyrics, people such as Lady Sovereign, Ironik, Kano and many more.

Another familiar face from channel AKA is the DJ Tim Westwood. before being signed to MTV and hosting a UK version of 'Pimp My Ride' he had his own show on channel AKA and became known through it.

Tim westwood

The next music channel in here is BET (black entertainment television), what's unique about this channel is that they mainly aim at TV for the African American community but also have a lot of other viewers  This channel is very popular and pushes African American hopefuls to success, and is more of a community music channel.

the BET logo

BET started off as a 2 hour program block on Nickelodeon, in 1980 showing many new music videos and black sitcoms, in the year 1983 it became its own channel, the channel was later owned by the conglomerate Viacom in 2003

These days we still have BET and the channel has growth massively, it's like many other big channels has its own award ceremony which gets a massive audience worldwide, as well as that the channel also has a walk of fame including names such as Micheal Jackson, Boys 2 Men and Whitney Houston.