Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin writing about Music Videos in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’

Below is a list of characteristics that are found in music videos. A video may contain all of them or just a few. Look at a range of examples and look out for them…

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

genre characteristics

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

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

motifs

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

voyeuristic

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

intertextual