Goodwins theory

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
2.Relationship between music and visuals
3. Relationship between lyrics and visuals
4. Demands of the record Label will include the need for lots of closeups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.
5. Frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes etc), particularly voyeuristic.
6. Often intertextual reference to films, tv programmes, other music videos which can contribute to the post modernism of music videos.


My artist is pop but not particularly mainstream. To explore Goodwins theory, I've chosen to look at Imagine Dragons.

 

1. The video itself is quite happy and upbeat which definitely goes along with the conventions of pop music. Genres have different things which commonly occur, for example a girl group might have dance routines and wear revealing clothing, or a metal band might film their video in an abandoned warehouse kind of setting and have a dull colour palette. Pop is commonly lighthearted and entertaining, doesn't particularly make you think.

2.The song itself is pretty upbeat and summery. The video seems to be set in the 60's, a decade which people romantacise a lot. The 60's seems to be making a comeback in music videos, Lana Del Reys 'National Anthem' portraying her as the first lady of the USA in the 60's.

3. The lyrics dont really connect to whats happening on screen. The video shows the band as actors pretending to go into space. The song isnt about being an actor or being in space or being in the 60's. 

The lyrics "If you love somebody

Better tell them while they’re here ’cause

They just may run away from you" 

connects to the start of the video where one band member leaves his family in order to go and fake the moon landing. Its also very well timed, "if you love somebody" *kisses his wife* "better tell them..."

The general chorus of the song KIND OF connects to the video. 

‘Cause I’m on top of the world, ‘ay

I’m on top of the world,'

Going into space or being an actor is a massive position of privilege so in a sense, yes that would make you on top of the world.

4. The thumbnail of the music video for this song is a closeup of the frontman. Throughout the video there are closeups of all the individual members of the band, they're portrayed as characters, not realistic versions of themselves.

5. In the video we see a group of people huddled round a tv screen, watching a rocket taking off.

 Later on in the video we see a man watching the band on 'mission control' monitors. It seems that even in the video. the band is in a video, the focus of someones attention.

The video includes frequent cutaways to the space mission.

In terms of  voyeurism, this video is pretty lacking, probably because the focus is men rather than women. If we look back to the image of people looking at a TV screen, we can see that all the women in the shot are very attractive.

 Both the wives featured are attractive and well groomed.

6.

This video is FULL of intertextual references. The whole thing is pretty much an homage to Stanley Kubrick.

The little boy from the video is modeled on Danny from 'The Shining'. Notice how the carpet in the top picture is the same as the wallpaper in the frontmans home.

The video features a subtle cut to a sign reading 'Scenic Overlook'. The hotel from the Shining is called the Grand Overlook Hotel.

The image above shows a security camera from the video. Below you can see HAL from 2001 a Space Odyssey, another Kubrick film.

The video also references The Beatles in recreating this famous shot of the band.

The whole video plays on the famous conspiracy theory that the moon landing was faked, an idea referenced in other songs such as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers "Californication"

"Space may be the final frontier but its made in a Hollywood basement."