ANDREW GOODWINS THEORY

1982 Andrew Goodwin published a book called 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' after he had done years of research into Music Videos. In the book he comes up with codes and conventions for music videos.

Goodwins Theory:
1. Music Videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics:

• Hard Rock= Performance based/massive crowds
• Girl/Boy Band= Dance Routine
• Rap/HipHop= Throwing Signs/low angles
• Gangsta Rap=  Women/Bling

An example would be Nsync 'Bye Bye Bye' this is a boy band and it includes a dance routine in it.

2. There is always a relationship between lyrics and visuals either illustrative or contradicting.

An example of this would be Katy Perry's Last Friday night. There is a relation between lyrics and visuals in this music video.


3. There is always a relationship between music and visuals either illustrative of contradicting.

There is a contradiction between the music and the visuals. This whole song is about where the love is but the video is a lot of bad this happening showing a contradiction.

4. The demands of the record label will need for lots of close ups of the artist.



There are a lot of close ups of Britney in this video to show the demands of the record label.

5. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work.

6.There is a frequent reference to the notion of 'looking', filming and cameras.

7. There is often a lot of intertextual references to film, television and popular culture.

This is a shot from Iggy Azela's 'Fancy'. This is a shot of Iggy the main artist dressed very similar to the main character in Clueless and this shows a intertextual reference between the two.