Key Features Of A Music Video

Andrew Goodwin, in Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992, Routledge), has identified the following features of music videos:


1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (eg stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl bands).


2. There is a relationsuip 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 (visual styles).


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


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


What has Andrew Goodwin made us think about (in reference to my music video):


Whether the video is primarily performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based and how elements of each are used in it. Also using Goodwin's categories and theory to analyse music videos within the same genre.