Andrew Goodwin is a media theorist who identifies five key features of music videos that an
audience is drawn to. They are;
Thought beats - seeing the sound - firstly the audience must be able to visualize the sound in their head by taking into account the structure of the song such as the verse/chorus. Secondly, the audience must hear the sound of the artists voice. This should be unique and can encourage a trademark sound, making the artist stand out to the audience. Barthes theory of the grain of the voice can be applied to this as he puts forward the notion of the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore, able to make associations of its own. Goodwin highlights the artists mode of address. Describing the artist and audience in a reciprocal stream of narrative between storyteller and story. This analogy can be translated to the music video, which is an extension of this story telling.
Narrative and Performance - According to Goodwin the audience only tend to get the gist of a song, the true meaning ambiguous. Goodwin suggests that music video should tell an unrelated tale with their role of advertising taking centre stage. Music videos should have a coherent repeatability. Narrative and performance should reflect one another in a coherent way so the audience can watch it over and over without loosing interest. The artist fulfilling both roles of narrator and participant helps to increase the authenticity. However, lip-synching and mimed actions must remain at the heart of a music video as the audience need to believe this is real life.
The Star Image - The star is a vital feature of a music video. The meta narrative describes the development of a star over time and should be incorporated in some way into the production of the music video. As presumably die hard fans appreciate the reference to before the artist was big, which only other fans can identify.
Relations to Visuals of the Song - Illustrate - Music videos should incorporate an array of images to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and associate it to the genre - Amplify - This is similar to repeatability, meanings and effects are manipulated to constantly shown through out the video and burned into our memory - Disjuncture - The meaning of the song is ignored. The audience stays in the dark as to its meaning.
Technical aspects of music video - technical aspects cement the music video together through the use of camera, angle, mise en scene and editing. When editing the music video should be cut to the beat as it makes it more entertaining.
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