Goodwins Theory

Andrew Goodwins theory allows us to analyse music videos concentrating on 7 main principles:

Link between lyrics and visuals
Links between music and visuals
Genre characteristics
intertextuality reference
voyeurism
star image
Performance, iconography/artist image- visual style

He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals, lyrics and the music 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. Record labels demand artists to create a video which will sell records and Voyeurism is used to increase the video’s attractiveness, particularly to males, whilst intertextuality is often employed in humorous videos. Goodwin also says that a music video is ALWAYS one of the 3, performance, narrative or concept based videos.

‘Chocolate’ is a song by Indie-Rock band ‘The 1975′. 

this music video indicates the conventions of an indie pop/rock band, this is recognised by the representation of the band and also from the sound of the instruments in the begging the sound of the guitar and drums signifies to us that it is a band. The video being in black and white and the location of it being underground and around the city at night  signifies a rock genre. 

In this song, the word ‘Chocolate’ is used an example of colloquialism as it is representing cannabis in a slang form. The artist has complied with Goodwin’s theory on this account as we see the lead singer of the band smoking ‘Chocolate’ as it is sung by him in the backing track, a clear link between lyrics and visuals in this music video. We see this on multiple occasions, showing how the artist has attempted to deliver a message to their audience not only of matty healys character but by combining their lyrics with the visuals of their music video. This is one of Goodwin’s six factors of a music video therefore showing how the artist has here complied with Goodwin’s theory. This can be seen below:

The video doesnt often cut to the beat, especially at the chorus, however we do focus on the lead singer and the rest of the band as it flashes to him and to the car. No solo instruments are played throughout the music video which would usually be done in atypical band music video. 

Also, the music video contains many close-ups of both the lead singer, who has the main involvement in the song, but also the other members of the band. At times, as seen below, we see a mid-shot of all four band members at once, which then zooms in onto the lead singer’s face. Most record labels require an artist to include close-ups of themselves in a music video for promotion and publicity reasons. We again here see the artist complying with Goodwin’s theory due to the variety of close-up shots seen in the music video. This links in with the notion of looking as we very rarely see direct address from any of the four band members with the audience, giving a sense of voyeurism whilst still highlighting the band members and therefore aiding publicity.

We see the notion of looking with a sense of voyeurism in this music video, due to the sexualisation of both the male and female body. We get a feeling that we are watching the band members in the narrative of the video also due to the black-and-white effect which has been placed on a video, limiting how much we can see of the band members themselves. The artist here complies with Goodwin’s theory as they include sexualisation of both the male and female body, which is separate to the narrative and close to the camera. This is portrayed to the audience as a private situation, highlighting the sense of voyeurism which this music video replicates. Also, within the main narrative of the music video, we never see any of the band members make eye contact with the camera. We see the four band members sat in a car driving along what seems to be a quiet road and, as shown below, none of the four member make any connection with the camera situated at the front of the car. This again gives the notion of looking and a sense of voyeurism in the music video as it’s almost as if the band members are unaware that they are being watched and we therefore act as observers of the situation. This again complies with Goodwin’s theory as he stated that the notion of looking Is required in order to make a music video realistic and believable.

The music video includes genre characteristics in the form of the black-and-white filter which has been placed over the initial filming of the music video. This highlights their genre of Indie-Rock as this genre includes the idea of differentiation from ‘regular’ music videos, hence the black-and-white filter being different to most other music videos. Goodwin included genre characteristics in his six factors of music videos to allow the audience an insight into the genre of music which the artist primarily plays. Here, the artist has included one of the main characteristics of Indie-Rock in the form of differentiation, showing how they have complied to Goodwin’s theory and therefore stated their genre of music, attempting to attract a niche audience. This can be seen below:

The syncing 0f music and visuals is very limited in this music video, most likely due to the genre of the song and also therefore the genre conventions of the music video. We do see one occasion, where the lead singer and protagonist in this video is nodding his head along to the beat of the song. This complies with Goodwin’s theory as it conforms to his third factor of which a successful music video should contain. Below is a screenshot of the protagonist in mid-motion as he nods along to the beat in this music video:

Finally, Goodwin included in his theory that a music video should have some inter-textual references, whether that be to movies, books or other songs, through visuals or music. This music video includes no inter-textual referencing meaning that the artist is here not complying with Goodwin’s Theory. This could again be due to the genre of music which the artist is playing, but also the narrative of the video as the artist may feel it is intriguing enough for their niche target audience without having to include and intertextuality to aid the video’s success.

Overall, the 1975’s ‘Chocolate’ complies to five out of the six conventions which Goodwin set out in his theory. Goodwin’s theory has here been proved right as the video has over 14,000,000 views on YouTube alone, and the artist has also gone on to make other successful videos, such as ‘Robbers’ and ‘Settle Down’, which also most likely included many of the six factors listed in Goodwin’s theory.