Music Videos - Andrew Goodwin

In his book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory, Andrew Goodwin identified a number of key features which distinguish music video as a form. His ideas were that:

• There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visual (with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contracting the lyrics).
• There is a relationship between the music and the visuals (again with the visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contracting the lyrics).
• Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography (E.g live stage artist performance in heavy rock).
• There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist/ vocalist.
• The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which, over time, become part of their star image.
• There is likely to be a reference to voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women, but also in terms of systems of looking (screens within screens, binoculars, cameras etc).
• There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts.

Briefing - Generic Codes and Convention

A Genre is a certain category which creative types of work differentiate and fall under.

A few examples of genres range from: Hip Hop, R&B, Garage, Funky House, Soul, Grime, Jazz, Funk, Classical, Pop, Heavy Metal, Rock etc.

Genre is important because it allows the music to appeal to particular audiences which could gain the artist popularity, fame and ultimately success.

The drawbacks of genre would be that you are limited to only a certain type and range of audience and some genres being niche would have an even smaller scope. Over-reliance of stereotype.

Generic codes and conventions - Codes are symbolic to the genre and conventions are the type of which the genre fits into.