Analysing music videos using Andrew Goodwin’s theory

Telephone-

In the music video for the song “telephone”, the director uses all 6 elements of Andrew Goodwin’s theory making it a prime example as it was highly effective. Regarding element 1, the video displayed its stereotypical genre conventions regarding the fact it follows the pop genre. However, this is more subtle as the video follows the style of Lady Gaga who seems to have a more niche audience due to her quirky uniqueness making the video almost taboo as some things may be non-coherent. It uses a dance routine which is catchy as it quickly spreads word of mouth as viewers may wish to learn it themselves.

Moving on, there is an illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals, an example of this is where the video does a glitch effect as the song almost does the same thing. This provides a sense of togetherness to the video as the two things fit together. In relation to the connection between music and visuals, this is pretty much the same further providing this illustrative relationship.

Lady Gaga and Beyonce are the sellable faces in this video. In order to emphasise this, the camera often cuts to close ups of their faces placing emphasis on them and giving them a visual style. There is a conveyed sense they wish to be perceived as rebellious which is displayed in mise en scene particularly through costume in addition to obviously actions. The eccentricity is evident to the audience and for many, it also acts as the main appeal.

Finally, the video uses intertextual reference. It uses the iconic car from Kill Bill which is also likely to build word of mouth and make more people watch the video. In addition, it’ll make people associate the video with Kill Bill and possibly help it establish the same tone as audiences discover similarities.

Come to daddy-

Using a video of a rather opposing genre, “come to daddy” is a video seeming to be of the horror genre due to creepy or scary visuals. It, however, also follows some features of Goodwin’s theory.

Regarding demonstrating genre conventions, it uses jump cuts which adds to this very fast paced feel the video provides. The intensity adds to this. The video has a very dirty mise en scene containing fragmented clips almost creating confusion to the audience as anticipation builds. As the video comes to its climax, the director uses an intertextual reference from the well-known horror film “the ring” reinforcing this almost horror genre the video obtains.