Andrew Goodwin's features of a music video

To get a higher understanding of the main elements of music videos I looked into research by Andrew Goodwin who designed 6 main points in analysing music videos which are found in his book Dancing in the Distraction Factory, these points identified the following features of music videos:


1.Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for pop genre).

2.There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either: illustrative, amplifying or contradicting).

3.There is a relationship between music and visuals (either: illustrative, amplifying or contradicting).

4.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 (a visual style). For example Michael Jackson with his white socks or Dappy from Ndubs with his bobble hats.

5.There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and even more so if the person is unaware of being watched. There is particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body in the majority of music videos. This is extremely common in R n B videos.

6.There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc). Hall Such as Geri Hallowell’s, it’s raining men video with intertextual references to Fame and Flashdance.

After looking at these points I have gained a greater understanding of analysing music videos and will take these points into consideration when I begin planning and developing my own music video.