Music Video Theory- Andrew Goodwin Worksheet
Relationship Between the Lyrics and the Visuals
Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is basically following a narrative. What can be seen on screen is what the lyrics mean. In Shawn Mendes' song "Treat you Better" this is clearly evident that the lyrics and the visuals have a relationship.
The lyrics are about how a woman he loves is being treated badly by her current boyfriend and how he believes he could treat her better than this other man. It shows him in the video helping her and the other boy being mean as well as the girl crying over their relationship, matching up the the lyrics and their meanings. This is very much of a narrative kind of music video as it follows the simple love story convention of a man trying to gain another woman's love.
Relationship Between the Music and the Visuals
Relationship between the music and the visuals can be as simple as the video being edited to the beat of the song.
In Area 11's song "Heaven Piercing Giga Drill", it can be seen that the song is edited to the drum beats. As the songs beat gets faster, the video starts to edit to the beat making the edits faster. As the beat of the drum hits, the shot changes along with the colour that they are wearing and what’s in the background. This makes the video flash between black and white to the beat of the song.
Music Videos have Genre Characteristics
Music videos are also capable of having a specific genre or topic in them. The most popular music videos to do so are hip hop songs which are based on money, girls and cars, even the police.
In Bruno Mars' song "24K magic", the song is emphasizing on money through how they are dressed, the settings behind them- one being a mansion- and even the lyrics refer to money. This music video has a genre about money, the title of the song even referring to 24k which is gold, giving off a very hip-hop vibe from the music and the video. This video could also have a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as they are expressing how much money they have.
Close ups of the artist and will often develop motifs that recur across multiple videos
[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]Songs that have close ups of the artists with often make them the "main star" in the video, basing it around them and their lives.
In Little Mix's song "Shout out to My Ex", all shots in the video are focused on the four girls, starring them as the main stars of their own music video. They are also the only four people to feature in the music video, basing it all around them and their lives. The fact that they only feature these four band members shows that the song is based around them and their life experiences, singing the the audience and telling them all about this experience of having an ex-partner.
Emphasis on 'looking'
Music videos that emphasizes on looking normally shows someone travelling in different locations and going to hard terrain to find what they are looking for. The most classic ones that have emphasis on looking are love songs.
In Enrique Iglesias song, DUELE EL CORAZON ft. Wisin, he is shown travelling through deserts, cities and riding horses on the search for love. The music video clearly shows that he is looking for something and creates a huge emphasis on it, especially when the song is all about looking for this girl's love. The song title "Duele el corazon" translates to "the heart hurts" showing that the song is about love and how he will travel far and wide to find this girl for her love.
Intertextual references
Music videos that include intertextual references refer to a large time in society or to something that is very recognizable to everyone. This can span from a dance to even racial territory about the police and coloured people.
In this song by Mika called "Lollipop", the animated writing in the video can be classically figured out to be packaging of chocolate bars. One can easily be recognised as KitKat and it references to many different kinds of sweets and assortments that everyone can recognise. Although it doesn't enthuse on a large part of society and it's issues, like many intertextual videos do, it still shows something everyone can recognise.
