Andrew Goodwin - Identifying Music Videos

In his book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992), Goodwin identified several key features and characteristics which can be used to recognise a music video

1. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visual (with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contracting the lyrics).
2. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals (again with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contracting the lyrics).
3. Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography (E.g. live stage perfomance in heavy rock).
4. There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist/vocalist.
5. The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which over time , become part of their star image.
6. There is likely to be a reference to voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women, but also in terms of systems of looking (screens with screens, binoculars, camera etc).
7. There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts.

Along with these key features he created three categories under which a music video can fall into:

• Concept-based - Videos that are based on a theme or an idea
• Performance-based - Videos that are based around a performance of the artist/group
• Narrative-based - Videos that follows a narrative or tells a story