Theory Application: Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin is a theorist that focuses on Music Videos, so it is very applicable to this project. He states that there are five key aspects to a successful music Video that an audience member looks out for and is ultimately satisfied by. These are as follows:

• Thought Beats
• Narrative & Performance
• Star Image
• Relation of Visuals to the Song
• Technical Aspects of the Music Video

The least obvious of these five is the Thought Beats - it relates to seeing the sound in your head and, ultimately, creating links between the style and sound of a song with the artist who it is created for. Music Videos must therefore use appropriate imagery to relate with the audience and enforce memorability.

The narrative and performance is important as an audience member does not immediately understand an entire narrative from just the song involved. With the addition of the Music Video's narrative, the whole story is conveyed and the audience no longer need to imagine the story. In this aspect, Goodwin states how important the lip sync is to a Music Video and how it ties up the authenticity of a story's relation to the singer/actor.

The star image relates to the individual (often the singer) that the audience is persuaded to support and connect to. This not only applies to Music Videos, but Band management where even in a larger band, a star is formed that the audience eventually likes more than any other, such as Take That with Robbie Williams and after his leave, Gary Barlow or The Jacksons with Michael. 

I believe, most importantly, are the visuals being parallel to the audio - unless the intent is to be purposefully contrapuntal - and that is one of the aspects detailed by Goodwin. There are three forms of this:

• Illustration: Visuals that are entirely parallel, sometimes fully representing the lyrics exactly with very little difference in story.
• Amplification: Desired meanings are conveyed, used more to represent morals.
• Disjuncture: As aforementioned, visuals that are completely contrapuntal to the audio and often abstract.

The technical aspects are very important; they involve the skills required and knowledge needed for a successful text. The four main areas are Camera Work, Editing, Mise-En-Scene and Sound. In terms of camera work, a successful piece must portray an array of shot speed, movement and design to interest the audience. Editing in Music Videos refers mostly to cutting to the beat of a song and creating parallel pace. Mise-en-scene is important as it refers to everything in the scene and manipulating this can produce a range of desired effects, enabling messages to be conveyed well. Sound is, oddly, not as relevant as the others other than a relation between the visuals and song. It sometimes applies with foley which should be of a high enough quality to fit with the rest of the project.