Dancing, Illustrating and Andrew Goodwin

We were shown five music videos that made the UK top charts. While watching these music videos with an analytical approach, we jotted down key features displayed in the music video.

Some of these included:

• Iconography
• Dance routines
• Typical party scenes for music videos of certain genres
• Quick cuts
• Laura Mulvey's male gaze

5 Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin is a theorist, in his book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory, he identified the following features of music video:

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (eg stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
• There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (visual style).
• There is frequent reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particular voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• There is often inter textual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc).

There are also different ways of music video construction, which can be done trough:

• Primarily performance-based 
• Narrative-based
• Concept-based