T2: Convention 5: Frequent Notion of Looking

T2: Convention 5: Frequent Notion of Looking

In this fifth convention Andrew Goodwin states that in music videos there are frequent references to the notion of looking. Particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. This is shown through many music videos the are going to be used as examples.

Rihanna - What's My Name? featuring Drake

This music video shows this convention pretty well, shown at the beginning of the video of when Drake is looking at Rihanna, and then the camera looks down at Rihanna's body from the males perspective of how he looks down at things. 

Beyonce - Video Phone Featuring Lady Gaga

In this music video, it explicitly shows how this convention works of how the camera shows the female body in music videos. In the music video where it has the scene of Beyonce dancing where it has two camera men recording parts of Beyonce's body, which is what the convention conveys. 

Task Two: Convention 4: Develop a Style

Task Two: Convention 4: Develop a Style

Andrew Goodwin's fourth convention is that all across all music videos, the demands of the record label will attempt to develop a motif that regularly recurs across their work. In their music video. Often, lots of close ups are demanded of the artist to help create a clear visual image/style of the artist. 

An Example of this is Lady Gaga: 


Lady Gaga's style has a striking visual, which has kind of changed in a dark one. This style of hers has been executed and maintained for a very long time. This image that you see of Lady Gaga is bright which executed through her music videos such as Poker Face and Just Dance, which are around the times she started. This was also maintained when she would go on the red carpet events. 

Another example of Andrew Goodwin's theory, this would be Katy Perry:

Katy Perry's style is very bright and colourful which shows through most of her music videos. For example, videos like her singles 'Roar', 'California Gurls' and just many more singles that recur. Katy Perry uses childlike images but wears provocative dresses that contrasts with the scenery in the video of 'California Gurls'. Her motif is, sweet and sexy. 

Task 2 Convention 3: Relation of Music to the Visuals

Task 2 Convention 3: Relation of Music to the Visuals

Andrew Goodwin's third convention is that the visuals in a music video will almost have a connection to the pace of the music/song. Just as convention 2, the video can be edited so that it either, illustrates, amplifies or contradicts the beat of the song. 

This music video illustrates the music that's playing in the background, the electrocardiogram which is shown mostly throughout the music video while the lead singer is singing, the visuals of the ECG (electrocardiogram) get big and small while the lead singer is vocally singing out their lyrics. Also, the animations go with the music for example the animation of the woman walking to the beat, where they show another animation of a group of women placing down tyres in time with the beat. Lastly, they show 4 different coloured ECG to represent each band member of the band, white for the lead singer, red and blue for the two different guitarists and the yellow for the drummers. Clearly, as seen on the music video, the animations really does illustrate the music video with the sequences and the timings of the music video. The good thing about an illustrative music video is that it visually shows what the lyrics are telling you and also shows that the visuals go in time with the music as explained previously. Although, it may not be appealing to audiences because in the video, majority of the time is shows the Arctic Monkeys ECG moving most of the time in the music video.

This music video amplifies. This music video from Nirvana, it amplifies the music that's playing with the techniques of slow motion. In the beginning as the music, the music is slow and calm but as it builds up which is where the slow editing is, when the chorus drops, sometimes the fast editing runs cohesively with the music. At times when the music was fast, the scenes are slow and at times the scene is in time with the music. An example of when it was in time of the music is when from 0:57 seconds in when the drummer playing on the drums to when Kurt Cobain jumps while playing the guitar. In this music video which amplifies is interesting as the pace of the music video gets in time with the music at times and can be slow and subtle at times too. Consistently throughout the video, the visuals are fast then they come out to be slow again throughout. The music video amplifies what the title of the song clearly states, with the teens having fun enjoying the music that is being played by the band.

In this Skrillex music video, it contradicts the music. This is because the music production is really fast and mostly the music video's pace is used in slow motion, which really contradicts the music. Slow motion was good in this video because as a viewer, it is really interesting to watch what is going on in the music video and listen to the music. However, the downfall is that the pace of the video doesn't cohesively match with the music playing since it is really fast. 

Task 2: Convention 2: Relation of Music/Lyrics to the Visuals.

Task 2: Convention 2: Relation of Music/Lyrics to the Visuals. 

In Andrew Goodwin's second convention, it is about the lyrics relating to the music video, so what you'll hear the artist singing or rapping their lyrics, the audience should visually see whats going on. So there is a very close relationship between the lyrics and the music video. This can happen in three different ways: 

Illustrate; music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and genre, this is the most common. 

An example of this is the music video riptide, what you hear in this music video is what you see in this video. A set of images are used in this music video to match the lyrics. A strength of this video is to make the audience to really understand what the lyrics is about visually and hearing the song go at the same time. Weakness, may not interest the audience as its just literal and the video could miss out on the subtext of the music video. For example, if the song was about digging, and there was a music video about it that was literal, it was just be plain and boring to the audience where they could show something interesting related to the song. 

Amplify; meaning are amplified often through repetition, part of the song is amplified visually drumming it into our vision.

This music video is an example of amplifying in this video the meaning of the song is visually being repeated to make the audience really understand the meaning of the song. A strength about this type of music video is that they showed different scenes for the subtext about the song. Weakness about this video is that the audience may not understand the first time of the meaning of the song.

Contradict; completely ignores the meaning of the song. 

In this music video the lyrics are completely ignored, the song is about calling someone, and this music video has no relation to the lyrics. The music video shows a yoga class working out with a lot of females and only one male in the class. They are all just dancing to the song that is being played. A strength would be, that its appealing to an audience that doesn't relate to the lyrics, as in this music video it just shows a yoga class of women just dancing. However, it has a weakness would be that the audience may find it stupid, that the video disconnects to the lyrics.