Andrew Goodwin
Aims:
To further understanding of Goodwin’s music video theory.
To analyse a music video according to his views.
This is my understanding of what to look for when analysing music videos:
Goodwin's Music Video Analysis
Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992)
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
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).
5. There is frequently reference to 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).
Cultural approaches to the rhetorical analysis of selected music videos
My analysis of a music video:
The video that I am going to analyse is 'The Kill' by a band called 30 Seconds to Mars which, when the press release came out, was said to be directed by a man named Bartholomew Cubbins; this was just a joke as Bartholomew Cubbins was the main character from Dr. Suess' 'The 500 hats of Bartholomew Cubbins'. However, this is still the name which they replace the original directors name with.
This video is of the alternative rock genre which is evident through many features, such as, the colour scheme which is mainly black and also contains contrasting colours in the same shots, such as, black and white symbolising binary opposition and white and red, suggesting death. The genre of this song is also clear due to the performance sections of the video. This is shown by the iconography of the instruments, such as, guitars, drum kits, bass guitars and amplifiers. Furthermore, the costumes in parts of this video clearly suggest that this is a rock video as the close ups of the frontman, Jared Leto, show that he is wearing chipped black nail polish and black eye-liner, allowing the audience to quickly assure themselves of the genre of the music.
There is an evident relationship between the lyrics of the song and the video as it is easy to see that the director has tried to make most of the significant and emphasised parts of the lyrics come to life. For example, the lyrics 'I tried to be someone else' were exaggerated as the director has decided to show the frontman twice in the same shot, singing to eachother. This has been done to emphasise the fact that he could not become someone else and seemed trapped in himself. Another example of where particular lyrics matched the video is when the word 'you' is sung; the visuals show someone walking up to another or putting there arms out to them which exaggerates the feeling and emotion which come along with the word.
Throughout the song, each of the edits goes at exactly the same pace as the beat of the music which emphasises the music and the lyrics, for example, during the chorus, every shot changes with every syllable exaggerating each word as it is said. Furthermore, the cuts slow down whenever the music slows down and the shots become much longer; they also speed up as the music ets faster and louder. Moreover, there are parts of the video in which the music completely stops (2:05); this is when Jared Leto is bouncing a ball against a wall of the hotel and all you can hear is the echo and the load thud of the ball hitting the wall. Every time you hear a thud, the shot changes to something completely different inside the hotel which seems like it relates to his character's life in some way.
As the frontman, Jared Leto, is also a very well-known actor as well as singer, there are many close-up shots of him, especially at the beginning of the video, which may be to entice the audience, attract them and draw their attention so that they watch it completely and, if they like it, will watch it more than once and spread the word about it. This will easily help sell and promote the band and their music world-wide, as Leto is a world-wide star. Furthermore, the image of the band is stereotypically 'rock n roll' as the members wear dark coloured clothes and have coloured hair; they also wear black eye-liner and nail varnish which clearly conveys the genre of the music. They also show that they can make a range of music and videos and always use different concepts for songs and music videos in order to be more entertaining and to keep the audiences guessing and this works very well even though they do not change their initial image. However, even though every concept of each of their videos is different, one feature is always kept constant; this is the colour scheme. It seems that most of their videos share mainly the same colours...red, white and black; which is effective as it is almost a signature and the audience can usually tell if a video is by this band even if they aren't sure of it.
This entire video is based upon the horror movie The Shining. The song and film are completely related as the song is called The Kill and this (killing) is the main basis of the film. This works very well as the video clearly shows that it is based on this film from the very beginning, attracting a wider and unexpected audience as the film is quite old.
The video for The Kill is primarily narrative-based, however, there is also a huge aspect of performance within it. I feel that the performance had to be placed into it as performance is uaually the main aspect of videos of the rock genre, therefore, without this aspect, it may seem boring and would not promote the band as much as it does.
In conclusion, this video has made certain features, such as, the genre of the music and the imae of the band, very clear and allows the audience to fully understand the origins and the purpose of this music and video. Furthermore, it promotes the band extremely well due to the numerous close-ups of the frontman, who is famous for previous work in well-known Hollywood films, which provides the band with a hue advantage as not only do they attract audiences who like their music, but also, audiences who are fans of this actor and audiences who are farmiliar with this specific movie that the video is based on. Overall, I feel that this video has done a great job in capturing the audience by relating the visuals with the music and lyrics so that everything ties together and it all makes sense.
There is an evident relationship between the lyrics of the song and the video as it is easy to see that the director has tried to make most of the significant and emphasised parts of the lyrics come to life. For example, the lyrics 'I tried to be someone else' were exaggerated as the director has decided to show the frontman twice in the same shot, singing to eachother. This has been done to emphasise the fact that he could not become someone else and seemed trapped in himself. Another example of where particular lyrics matched the video is when the word 'you' is sung; the visuals show someone walking up to another or putting there arms out to them which exaggerates the feeling and emotion which come along with the word.
Throughout the song, each of the edits goes at exactly the same pace as the beat of the music which emphasises the music and the lyrics, for example, during the chorus, every shot changes with every syllable exaggerating each word as it is said. Furthermore, the cuts slow down whenever the music slows down and the shots become much longer; they also speed up as the music ets faster and louder. Moreover, there are parts of the video in which the music completely stops (2:05); this is when Jared Leto is bouncing a ball against a wall of the hotel and all you can hear is the echo and the load thud of the ball hitting the wall. Every time you hear a thud, the shot changes to something completely different inside the hotel which seems like it relates to his character's life in some way.
As the frontman, Jared Leto, is also a very well-known actor as well as singer, there are many close-up shots of him, especially at the beginning of the video, which may be to entice the audience, attract them and draw their attention so that they watch it completely and, if they like it, will watch it more than once and spread the word about it. This will easily help sell and promote the band and their music world-wide, as Leto is a world-wide star. Furthermore, the image of the band is stereotypically 'rock n roll' as the members wear dark coloured clothes and have coloured hair; they also wear black eye-liner and nail varnish which clearly conveys the genre of the music. They also show that they can make a range of music and videos and always use different concepts for songs and music videos in order to be more entertaining and to keep the audiences guessing and this works very well even though they do not change their initial image. However, even though every concept of each of their videos is different, one feature is always kept constant; this is the colour scheme. It seems that most of their videos share mainly the same colours...red, white and black; which is effective as it is almost a signature and the audience can usually tell if a video is by this band even if they aren't sure of it.
This entire video is based upon the horror movie The Shining. The song and film are completely related as the song is called The Kill and this (killing) is the main basis of the film. This works very well as the video clearly shows that it is based on this film from the very beginning, attracting a wider and unexpected audience as the film is quite old.
The video for The Kill is primarily narrative-based, however, there is also a huge aspect of performance within it. I feel that the performance had to be placed into it as performance is uaually the main aspect of videos of the rock genre, therefore, without this aspect, it may seem boring and would not promote the band as much as it does.
In conclusion, this video has made certain features, such as, the genre of the music and the imae of the band, very clear and allows the audience to fully understand the origins and the purpose of this music and video. Furthermore, it promotes the band extremely well due to the numerous close-ups of the frontman, who is famous for previous work in well-known Hollywood films, which provides the band with a hue advantage as not only do they attract audiences who like their music, but also, audiences who are fans of this actor and audiences who are farmiliar with this specific movie that the video is based on. Overall, I feel that this video has done a great job in capturing the audience by relating the visuals with the music and lyrics so that everything ties together and it all makes sense.
