Andrew Goodwin Music Video Theory

Illustrating

Goodwin expressed his theory with identifying a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics, through certain subdivisions such as illustration. Illustrative music videos are very similar to interpretive music videos which explain how, music videos are very literal and will explicitly match the visuals to what the lyrics are talking about. These types of music videos are generally easy to make as their is not that much thought or creativity that goes in to the video, its rather the case of how they will exhibit the matching lyrics and visuals.

Thrift shop by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis at 1:02 connotes this style as their whole music video denotes how when certain lyrics are said, the visual is instantly shown. The fact that they was able to bring in RKelly to play a cameo role in the music video was one of many examples that exhibits the illustrative style style within this music video.

Amplifying

The next subdivision would be Amplifying, this is an idea that the visuals change, the music video will use certain colours to enhance the style and to create this special atmosphere, which would try to evoke different emotions within the audience. Amplifying is closely connected to an impressionist video which are music videos generally wont have a specific narrative to them, but they do try and attach themselves to the audience, in the sense that they wish to try and make the audience feel certain emotions. 

Hello' from Adele at 1:15 would be an example of an impressionist video as the colours are almost lifeless, they arent sharp and bright, which relate to the feel of the song. By creating an amplifying music video Adele has been able to really engage the audience as we want to continue watching this narrative story play on. 

Contradicting

This is where the music video will deliberatly go against the genre conventions, a contradicting music video is much like a genre-subverting video. An example of this would be Lil Dicky 'Save Dat Money' at 2:21 as he produces a hip hop music video but then makes it comical by the use of his lack of stereotypical props, and how he portrays himself in the music video as quite an awkward person that seems very out of place.
For the Lil Dicky by using this style, his music video he has been able to connote his personal style and how he wants to be represented by the public. The style of 'Save Dat Money' has been able to brand himself among his other music videos as a new fresh artist in such a saturated genre of music.

Iconography & Genre Conventions

Iconography is shown through the visual signifiers of a music video, they are the typical conventions that the audience can see in every music video in the same genre. For instance in a hip-hop video there would usually be young women, nice cars, a lot of bright jewellery etc. 

For example David Cash's 'chevy' at 1:20 denotes a nice car, attractive young women and wearing lots of jewellery, which clearly connotes that his music video is in the hip-hop genre.
By David Cash doing a more typical genre video he is almost connoting to the audience that he is serious about his work. As he is not very well known like other rappers ( J.Cole etc.) he cant really afford to take risks with his music videos, so by producing Chevy he can show his audience that hes a serious rapper.

Star Persona & Close-ups

Goodwins idea of a star persona music video, consists of the whole music video revolving the artist, most of the video will show them with different movement and angles of the camera moving all around the artist. This can be seen in Hotline Bling by Drake at 1:18 as the whole music video denotes him in a studio set either dancing alone, or in a few cases sitting down on some stairs. A small segment of the music video will cut to some women also dancing but thats not particularly the main focus of the music video, its rather all about Drake poorly dancing. 

This idea of a star persona and the use of many cuts can have quite a negative impact on the artist we think that the artist is quite self involved aside from the fact that the actual music video of Hotling Bling is ridiculous and boring. 

Voyeurism

Voyeurism is shown through the treatment of the female body, it is where a women is explicit presented much like a materialistic possession. Generally in a music video someone or a group of people will watch the women, which almost allows the audience to watch her as well with out consciously feeling guilty as it becomes socially acceptable to look. An example of this would be in 'Anconda' by Nicki Minaj at 4:24 she will dance around drake in a very sexual way, as his eyes follow her as an audience we can look at her and feel very normal about the situation. 

Voyeurism is an idea that is very explicit, the artist will have specific intentions and in some cases a specific message they wish to get across. However in this instance Nicki doesnt seem to have any underlying message, the whole music video is rather saying 'stare at me' which is something that no one respects particularly. 

Intertextuality  

When a music video uses references mainly from a film, because there has been a synergy created, where the film and artist have worked together. The music video will explicitly use visual references in the music video to show the synergy, the references will not be made up either instead they are actual scenes/shots from the media text being added into the music video. 
An example of synergy would be Justin Bieber's never say never at 0:46. Here we are able to see a segment of the film being used in the music video which connotes the synergy that Justin Bieber and the film have.
Using Intertextuality allows the artist to work with a TV/ film institution, which in turn allows for the artist to perhaps enter a different area of media. Justin bieber has been able to feature more cameo roles in some TV programs and star in some episodes. For the artist and the institution it allows them to simultaneously get some exposure in the two different sectors of media. As in this example Justin Bieber has been able to get more exposure and perhaps a bigger audience, whereas for Columbia Pictures they are also able to gain more awareness for their film from Bieber's audience by working with him. Ultimately leading to a greater income as more people are aware.