Andrew Goodwin’s Music Theory From
“Dancing in the Distraction Factory” (1992) and how it has Changed
In 1992 Andrew Goodwin came
up with a theory about the forms and conventions of music videos. The
characteristics of these were:
1.
Music videos demonstrate
genre characteristics e.g. rock videos being made up of stage performance and
girl bands having dance routines.
2.
There is a
relationship between lyrics and visuals.
3.
There is a
relationship between music and visuals.
4.
There is a
frequent reference to voyeurism, especially with objectification of the female
body.
5.
There is often
inter-textual reference (often to film, TV, children’s stories etc.)
Over the years this has
gradually changed with artists becoming more experimental with their videos and
the conventions of them but largely this has stayed the same.
One example of breaking the
gender stereotype is Jennifer Lopez song “I Luh ya Papi” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4oiEhf9M04) which while sticking largely to the forms and
conventions of a hip-hop video while the voyeurism is largely sexually
objectifying the male figure whereas usually this would be the female being
objectified.
Another good example, which
breaks Andrew Goodwin’s theory, is the video for the Chemical Brothers song
“Star Guitar”. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S43IwBF0uM) During the video the artist does not appear and
there is no clear story. The video features timed scenery in the foreground and
background to go with the beat of the song. In Goodwin’s theory he believes
that there should be an artist represented or a narrative story.
The song “feels like we only go Backwards” by Tame
Impala (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wycjnCCgUes) also breaks Andrew Goodwin’s theory in a very
similar way to the chemical brothers. The song does not feature the artist and
is done in one scene where visuals are placed to fit with the music. The lack
of staged performance especially breaks convention due to the genre of the
song.
While much has changed in
music videos they largely stay true to Goodwin’s forms and conventions. Music
videos of today are becoming more experimental featuring different themes such
as the sexuality of men rather than women.
by Robert Rickers & Kieran Webber
