Textual Analysis on Goodwin's Theory

Eminem: When I'm Gone
Generic characteristics
This music video follows some of the common generic conventions associated with rap music videos including baggy working class clothing, close to medium shot camera angles of the artist performing to the camera  and cuts between the artist performing and the narrative. However the often used thuggish lifestyle of sex, drugs and money hasn't been portrayed in this video and there is a much bigger focus on the narrative which is about Eminem's personal family life.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals
There is a very strong relation between the two throughout this video as many of the lyrics are words being said by different characters in the video, specifically Eminem's daughter. Also the song uses a lot of description which is portrayed literally in the video, for example when the lyrics say 'She's piling boxes in front of the door trying to block it' we see his daughter piling boxes which is followed by the lyrics 'Daddy please. Daddy don't leave. Daddy no, stop it!' which are sung by the artist but mouthed by his daughter.
Relationship between music and visuals
The visuals don't follow the song's beat at all throughout and when Eminem is performing in front of the audience also contradict it by the pace of the crouds movement to the rhythm. This allows the viewer to focus more on what is happening and being said instead of the music itself.


Focus on artist and unique visual style
There is a focus on the artist very often in the video which is also common for rap videos as they use many shots of the artist rapping towards the camera.
Notion of looking
The video uses this through the various shots, following the common rap convention in which the artist says the lyrics directly towards the camera.
Intertextual references
The video contains no clear intertextual references in it, which is most likely due to it relating more to the artist personally as a pose to the world around him.

Research into Andrew Goodwin's Theory

I researched into the theory of Andrew Goodwin which states 6 key features which music videos contain. This would benefit my music video because I will require to fulfil most of these in order for it to be successful and look professional.
According to Goodwin's theory the six features included in music videos are:
1. Generic characteristics
2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals
3. Relationship between music and visuals
4. Focus on artist and unique visual style
5. Notion of looking
6. Inter textual references

Generic characteristics
By this he means based on the genre of music the video will include particular features which will define it as that genre of music, such as rock videos using live stage performances and shots of instruments or rap videos including objectified women, money and fast cars. An example of this in a music video would be with My Chemical Romance's 'Famous Last Words'  which has a rock genre. The music video shows this by the artists wearing dark makeup and costumes, live performance and low key lighting.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals
This describes the song's lyrics as being followed by what appears in the music video. For example in Macklemore's video for 'Thrift Shop' throughout the whole video the artist follows this rule firstly at the start when he says "Walk into the club" as he is walking into a club, followed by "dressed in all pink 'cept my gator shoes, those are green" whilst pointing at his shoes and wearing pink clothing and so on for the rest of the video.

Relationship between music and videos
For this Goodwin relates what happens in the video with the tone and atmosphere of the song either illustratively, amplifying or contradicting. This can be seen often in Enrique Iglesia's video for 'Bailando' in which there are many shots of people kicking a football at the rhythm of the music and at some points also clapping their hands. This helps amplify the beat to seem more effective.


Focus on artist and unique visual style
This states various artists focus most of the video's attention towards them as the centre of attention using a larger variety of shots of them and shot compositions that make them more noticeable. As well as this there is a clear style used in the video which follows a trend personal to that artist that most of their other videos follow. An interesting example is Skrillex who instead of featuring himself as the centre of attention often doesn't include himself in his music videos uses children as the protagonists of his music videos, such as 'Bangarang', 'Make It Bun Dem' and 'First Of The Year'.
Notion of looking
This relates to voyeurism and the sense looking at the characters in the video. Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory is often used in this sense to represent the generic conventions for the video, e.g. a Rap objectifying women. This can be seen in the video for 'Gold Digger' by Kanye West which

Inter textual references
Here Goodwin talks about the video including references from other music videos or from a different form of media. Robbie William uses this clearly at the end of 'You Know Me''s music video where he replaces the Lion from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo
with a rabbit.

Music video fact sheet notes

Our class received a fact sheet written by our teacher, Mrs McDonald, for curriculum press, which I have made notes on the main points of information included in it and completed the activities. This will overall help me gain a further knowledge and understanding of music videos so I can produce my own at a better standard by knowing the purpose, conventions and genres of music videos.
Purpose of a music video

• Their purpose is to sell the song being played
• Also promote products featured in the video such as albums, films, tours and merchandise
• Music videos allow for audience to have access to the main product unlike other product

Digital development for music videos

• Before the digital age music videos were only available at times and places approved by the company such as Top Of The Pops
• Development in media technology meant music videos were more widely available as they could be played through sites like YouTube and portable devices such as mobile phones and iTouch devices
• Companies originally attempted to prosecute those who uploaded their music videos to YouTube for copyright infringement but it was too time consuming, expensive and futile
•  Now companies and artists host their own YouTube channels where they host their own music videos and offer links to purchase the music legally from iTunes.
• TV shows such as X Factor also have YouTube channels where they show performances and links to contestant versions of the songs on iTunes
• Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group  and Abu Dhabi Media launched Vevo to host their music through YouTube while earning YouTube and Google a small revenue from advertising

Music video conventions

• Movement is essential to music videos and usually follows the song's rhythm
• It can be achieved through moving the camera, characters or editing
• Music videos could have a narrative which may relate to the lyrics of the song or tell a different story.
• Most Music videos feature the band or artist as a part of the product either performing using lip synching, playing instruments (if its a band) or as characters acting in the video or a combination
• Intersexuality (references to other media) is used in music videos which are either clear to the viewer or obscure

Activity 1
I was asked to analyse a music video, for which I chose Promises by Nero, based on the following:
Movement
There is a very strong sense of movement throughout this video, firstly through the editing and camera movement which follow the same rhythm and tempo as the music. Also the characters mirror the music's pace through movement, particularly when dancing in the video.
Narrative
The narrative follows a woman falling in love in a dystopian future and being arrested for it.
Band/artist
The female member of the band is featured in the video as an important looking character singing with the music. The other two members are also featured in the video as characters resembling guards.
Intertextuality
The dystopian setting of the video has a lot of reference to the film Equilibrium (2002) which follows a similar plot and includes very similar costumes to those featured in the video.

Music video genre

• Music videos often rely on codes and conventions associated with a genre
• F. Gary Gray is a film director from the 1990s known for being the first to use most of the visual codes found in music videos
• These include low-rider cars, basketball courts, gang culture, women in skimpy clothing, and financial excess emblems.
• The hip-hop subgenre of grime recently has returned to the basics of hip-hop music videos creating 'hood videos'
• Hood videos are generally filmed with a low budget and revolve around the rapper's neighbourhood to show their pride from where they've come from.
• They also feature conventions like big groups, baggy clothing and links to gang culture.   

Activity 2

Musical genre	Clothing	Behaviours	Video settings
Hip-hop	Urban, casual clothing-tracksuits, jewellery	Driving fast cars, being among women	Performance towards camera
Metal/Rock	Dark colours, T-shirts	Playing electric guitars	Live performance
Punk	Tight, black jeans	Skate boarding	Live performance/ performance to camera

Initial ideas for a music video.

This is a brainstorm of rough ideas to use for our song 'Cyanide'. Initially I related them mostly to the song's name for example cyanide being a chemical which comes from apples which we could incorporate into a snow white based narrative. As a group we will discuss these and decide which is the most appropriate idea to use.

Initial notes on music artist poster

I wrote a basic analysis on how an artist's advertisement looked, which would help me understand what makes it effective so I can apply my findings when it comes to designing my advertisement.

The band's name (You Me At Six) has been placed in the centre of the page to highlight their importance within the poster and it is in a large and black font with a white background so the contrast between the two colours make their name more eye catching among the poster. The text has been made to look like it is typed on a piece of ripped paper taped onto the poster, linking in with the messy, un-neat style of contemporary rock's generic conventions.
In similar sized font what the poster is about is seen at the top. It also contrasts with the bright background to bring it out more as it is necessary for informing the viewer of what is being advertised. It has been placed on the top of the page so the viewer reads the poster from top to bottom with the most important information first.
Underneath the artist name is further information about the event including locations, dates and times. This has been made in a smaller white font over a black background to it can be clearly seen.
The main background includes the artists in the band standing next to each other, with the lead singer slightly closer to the front to signify his higher importance. Behind them is the image seen on the cover of their most recent album at the time, 'Hold Me down'.

Analysis of student video-Enigma

To help me learn form any mistakes made by others doing the same project as myself as well  as how they have tackled it I made an analysis on another student's music video. This would help with my own because I would be able to use how this video has been constructed to help with making our own video.
Visual codes

The video has been mostly set inside a garage which as a location has connotations of improvisation and low expense reflecting the indie rock style of the song. It also portrays the stereotypical place where rock bands practice at the early stages of their career. In the background disco lights have been used as iconography to make them appear as  lights on a live stage, creating a juxtapose of the band's actual location to emphasise their low budget set. The coloured dust throwing, creating a mess follows the band genre's conventional use of havoc and an uncontrollable attitude. The colours also indicate the song's non-negative style. This is also reflected in the character's energetic and positive body language. There isn't a clear use of iconography or typography used in the video which could have been used more to mirror the song's love theme, for example a rose which connotes love. The high key yellowish tinted lighting reflects the positive feel of the song to help emphasise it.
Technical codes
The editing is effective in following the music's beats for emphasis however a lot of the time the shots last a long time which makes the pace of the video quite slow unlike that of the song. A faster pace would help mirror the up-beat style of the song. There is a good use of framing in each shot, however there isn't a wide variety of camera angles which would make the video more interesting and engage with the audience better.
Genre

The artist's genre is Rock/Indie Rock which matches mostly the style of the video as it follows common conventions such as manic behaviour, a live performance and close up shots of the instruments and artists, which are expected throughout the video, however the video's pace is a little slow for a rock video a lot of the time.
Narrative
The video's main narrative involves the song's band entering a garage to practice the song being played. This relates to the classic stereotypical rehearsal space form most high school bands before they become well known, especially rock. There is a very energetic and positive theme to the song and the video shown by the coloured dust fight. The lyrics say "Love's a crossword like an enigma made with words" which implies love is a very complex subject. The video doesn't reflect the lyrics as there is no clear references to the idea of love within it except possibly the strong looking friendship between the band members. This could have been achieved through iconography relating to love and romance or certain characters portrayed as a couple or as one or more having feelings for another.
Audience
The video targets the song genre's typical teenage/young adult audience well by its use of wild behaviour when the characters are throwing dust at each other. This would also be appropriate for the generic low or middle class audience who are commonly stereotyped as being more rebellious and disorderly than higher classes.
Representation
There isn't a clear representation of any issues in the video other than vaguely age through the stereotypical uncontrollable behaviour of the young characters in the video. This area could be emphasised further so the audience can relate more to the video's narrative by using stereotypical representations such as the characters being mischievous or contrasting the behaviour of older, maturer characters.
The artists themselves follow the conventional casual looking clothing of pop/rock bands which helps highlight the video's genre to the audience. The casual fashion also emphasises the characters as being an amateur band rehearsing in a garage.

Purpose of a music video

Generally a music video is only so when used for promotional purposes. A music video will provide a form of visual entertainment though a short film in order to entice an audience to purchase the song featured in the video as well as being used as a way of advertising the artist to them, ultimately in order to gain extra revenue for them and the company. It works as a product advertisement in which, unlike most common advertisements, the audience can actually experience the product because they are listening to the song.

The MTV channel was originally created to help stream artists' music videos to a wider audience. Nowadays YouTube mostly provides this through channels such as 'Warner Music Group' and 'Vevo' which have received over 5 billion views with their top subscribed channel alone (RihannaVEVO).

Another reason for artists to use music videos is as a promotional tool for themselves or for the album the song is coming from. In the same way the audience is given an experience of the product, that being the artist or album. For example PSY's video for 'Gangnam Style' promotes his album of the same name not only by using the same song name as the album, but also by featuring a scene referencing to the album cover by looking similar to it and at the end of the video showing the actual cover.

Product placement is also an common purpose for music videos. it involves featuring a company's product within the music video to help advertise it so the artist and record label can make some extra revenue from them. Owl City used product placement to help promote the film Wreck-It Ralph in their music video for 'When Can I See You Again' by using a similar video game theme as the film and sections of scenes from it.