Applying Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin studied music videos and came up with 6 key characteristics that music videos will usually demonstrate. The first of these is that the video will be representative of the genre: for example, performances will usually be more heavily focused on in a rock video as opposed to the video of an acoustic singer. The second is that there will be a relationship between the lyrics or the visuals, whether the visuals illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics. The same is true of the relationship between the music and the visuals, which is the third characteristic. The fourth is the idea that a music video will always contain lots of focus on the artist in order to sell them, and this is a demand of the record label to help them make money. The fifth characteristic is that music videos often use the concept of voyeurism: they play on the fact people like to look and often use the Male Gaze Theory combined with fragmented body shots in often to popularize music videos.  Finally, there is often intertextual references: the video will use the audience's knowledge of another text and build on that as a theme in their video. One video that appears to demonstrate  all these is Beyoncé's 'Best Thing I Never Had'. 

This video is a prime example of how Goodwin's theory can be put into practice. It is a video that illustrates the lyrics as the narrative of the video very much matches the story in the lyrics. In this video, Beyoncé is singing about the 'Best Thing (She) Never Had', and the video shows a failed marriage and relationship that turned into a successful one with another man. This shows it is illustrating the lyrics as she is presenting a story that runs parallel with the themes in the lyrics, but she is also expanding on it by giving details of the other relationship and the marriage. This was one of Goodwin's theories, as he said that the narrative of music videos would always either illustrate, amplify or contradict the meaning in the lyrics. As well as this, Goodwin proposed a similar theory saying that the music track would also either amplify, contradict or illustrate meaning. In this case, the music illustrates the song as it is slow, but uplifting, and these are the moods Beyoncé sings about during her performance. 

Beyoncé is a solo female artist, and by this she belongs to a genre. Most solo female artists sing directly to the camera and often appear as the only character in their videos. For example, Rihanna and Taylor Swift often do the same thing. This was another of Goodwin's theories: the concept that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.

 Goodwin also said that these shots were necessary in order to provide ample shots of the star for the record label, who would require them to be featured intensely. The purpose of this is obviously to sell the star, which is only furthered by the use of direct address as they look into the camera (creating a sense of intimacy between them and the viewer). These might also happen often against all of an artist's videos, which would create a motif for them: this is often true of artists such as Lady Gaga, who are famous due to a very prominent image which comes through in their music videos.

In Beyoncé's video 'Best Thing I Never Had', she is also shown through fragmented body shots and skimpy costumes. This shows off her figure and brings a voyeuristic element to the video: it allows those watching to look and admire her. Not only does this present a pleasure for the audience by allowing them to watch her, but it also presents Beyoncé in a positive light, whereby the viewers may want to watch her other videos and it would help to sell her music as well as her as an artist.

Intertextuality in Music Videos

This video is a classic example of intertextuality. As you can see, the entire video has been presented through a made up video game with pieces of performance cut in. The director/the band have done this so that the audience - particularly those that play video games a lot - will recognise the style and this will provide a certain pleasure for them. This in turn will lead to a positive outlook on the video as the audience will think it is cleverly done, and hopefully therefor a positive outlook on the song and the artist themselves.

The song itself is about the concept of 'Californication', which refers mainly to the Hollywood industry and widely spread dream to be involved in it as a star in some way. The use of the intertextuality in this video highlights this as the animated characters in the game represent each of the band members. Each complete a different sort of game: snowboarding, swimming, driving and roaming and complete tasks that would be impossible in real life. It is possible that this is a tactic used to suggest the dream of Californication is an also impossible in real life (for most), and that they do not support the dream.

Examples from Californication & Other Video Games

Here you can see quite clearly how the director/band have copied common elements of video games to add to their videos.

Voyeurism in Music Videos

Voyeurism is an theory proposed by Freud that has been applied to media productions: it is the idea that the audience like 'looking'. This is usually for sexual pleasure, with the camera being the (usually male) gaze looking at an object (the woman) in the way they're being presented.

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One good example of voyeurism in music videos is in this music video, Satisfaction by Benny Benassi. 

Goodwin proposed that voyeurism often happens with fragmented body shots. For example, in the video there are many shots focusing on the bottoms or breasts of the girls. This emphasises the sexual treatment of them, focusing on attractive parts of their body rather than their personalities or story. 

Another way that we can tell that the video is blatantly aimed at males is by the tools used in it. Men are typically seen to be more 'handy' and therefore the tools used and the information about them would be more aimed at men. The tools and the women are the only two elements in the video, showing how it is the male's gaze being used. The tools could also be an example of phallic symbolism, which is often used to suggest male domination. It would also be pleasing for the men to see these symbols associated with sexually attractive girls, and help to sell the sex element of the video. 

However, it could also be argued that this video is extremely over the top, exaggerating and parodying the concept of voyeurism. The video contains nothing more than scantily clad women conducting manual labour, and the two elements discussed above suggest that the director was using very obvious techniques in order to create humour. 

The fragmented body shots of the women exemplify the techniques used to sell stars (particularly female) in other music videos, but as the women in this video are not related to the creation of the song this is obviously not the purpose. The other typical purpose of presenting a particular gender as sexually attractive is to make the main star look better: as shown in the picture to the right, from 50 Cent's video 'In Da Club'. In this video, the women avoid a direct gaze with the camera and instead look at the artist, presenting him as something to be admired. 

This is not what's happening with 'Satisfaction', as the girls are looking directly at the camera in order to connect with the viewer, again suggesting that the aim of the video is to parody.

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 However, the gender roles can be reversed by powerful independent singers. In Shania Twain's Man! I Feel Like A Woman she parodies an existing video that objectifies women and reverses the roles, therefore objectifying the men.

 
 Here the men are dressed in very tight clothing, showing off every contour of their body. They also do not look directly at the camera to avoid the audience connecting with them, suggesting they are there to be looked at and nothing more. Fragmented body shots are again used in the same way to show them off as objects.

However, often in videos where the woman seems empowered, the sexualisation goes both ways. There are two main theories for this:
1) Feminist: the woman only seems as if she's in power, when she's in reality still being sexualised to pleasure the man.
2) Post Feminist: the woman is perfectly aware she is being sexualised, and using it to create the effect she wants.

For example, in Shania Twain's video she undresses sexually and then is left in a shirt and corseted dress: this shows off both her legs and cleavage, presenting her in a sexualised way.