Detailed Analysis of Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin’s 7 Features of Music Videos

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style)

7. There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc).

Ben Howard – I Forget Where We Were

Although is slower and is played by a solo artist (Ben Howard) as supposed to an entire indie band, this video follows conventions of the indie genre.

This video follows a storyboard convention, as throughout the entire music video, no performance is shown. However, a cinematic or storyboard video usually includes aspects that tell a story, the ideas and scenes in this video

appear random as they have no apparent storyline to it.

There is a relationship between lyrics an visuals. The lyrics are represented with images (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting) This music video is entirely abstract and random seen as there is no blatantly obvious link between the video and visuals that appear on screen and the lyrics in the song that are heard. The only link to the music is the pace and tempo. both the video and the music follow a similar style as both are relatively slow and have a melancholy feel and atmosphere. The majority of the video is shot in slow motion, which matches the sow chords and riffs being played on the guitar in the song

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a

visual style)The usual style for an indie music

video would include a performance aspect, this may be due to record

label demands. This means that this video does defy genre conventions. In a stereotypical indie music video

the artist would be made clear, however in this video Ben Howard

is never visible, and the two characters have no link to the

creation of the song. artist is never scene in the video and the only two people present appear random and

have no link to the artist. (Not the artist)

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female

bodyThroughout this video both characters/actors are displayed in limited amounts of clothing. This isn't or may not be for a male or female gaze but instead to fit in with the mise en scene of the video, with both characters being on a beach. If either notion of looking is more dominant the its that of the female gaze, in this instance the male is shown to be wearing less clothes when on camera.

The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style) &There are often

intertextual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music videos etc).

The artist is never scene in the video and the only two people present

appear random and have no link to the artist. The artist has no personal iconography as the same scenes are

not linked to him or are in any of Howard’s any other videos. The

video has no apparent intertexual references and no particular regular

notion of any iconography of any sort and appears completely

independent.

This video also goes against modern day conventions through the use of the size of the video. Usually, modern day videos use a 16x9 size ratio, which fills a whole YouTube

screen. However in this video, the size of the picture has a much smaller width, leaving large black borders around the sides of the picture, when watched on a modern day

device. This is done to make the picture appear older, as older film cameras used dimensions and sizes similar to this.

Earl Sweatshirt - Whoa

This video follows various conventions of the rap genre as it has performance aspects to the video. Throughout the video the artist is singing the words to the song, whilst continuing

to carry on, as a storyboard would. This video uses both conventions of a storyboard and a performance video.

There is a relationship between lyrics an visuals. The lyrics are represented with images (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)

Similarly to the song, the video appears dreary and slurred because of the slow motion footage and the dull colours used when editing in post production, the slurs in the background of the song give the musical aspect a similar feel to that of the visuals. The effect also gives the video a slightly contorted feel, separating it from real life and making it feel almost fantasy like. The lyrics aren't entirely related but the musical content is.

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a

visual style)

The main artist’s face (there are featuring artists) and presence is

very predominant in this video, this may be due to the demands

of the record label, but for whatever reason, the artist is

made clear in many ways. Throughout the video the main

artists of the song is shown to be the one singing or rapping, his

face is also the one most

regularly on show.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and

particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body

The notion of looking and the use of male gaze in this video is meant to be ironic and humorous. This is as the model or the female part present is a stereotypically good looking woman as she is much older than a stereotype for this genre. The use of humour in the male gaze matches the rest of the video in an attempt to contort reality.

The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style) &There are

often intertexual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music videos etc).

Earl Sweatshirt (the main artist of the this song), is also a member of

the hip-hop group ‘Odd Future’. Throughout this video there are

various members of the Odd Future musical group that are

visible on screen. This repeated vision of the group makes the

groups iconography obvious and states that he is interlinked with

this group. His is a part of the artists visual and musical style.

Modern Baseball –The Weekend

There is a relationship between lyrics an visuals. The lyrics are represented with images (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)

This video does coincide with the lyrical content present in the audio of the song. For example, towards the start of the song, the lead singer describes the description of a girl, “hipster with glasses”, a girl following this description given by the music becomes visible on the screen soon after this is sung. This feature of video making isn't usually a convention of indie or rock music and usually follows more of a pop genre.

The musical aspect to the video matches the visual aspect as the fast paced tempo is

reflected in the dancing audience that are watching the band play, in the performance

aspect of the video.

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may

develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)

Throughout the video the members of the band are visible in many of the shots. This may be due to the record label’s demands or instead to simply fit the performance aspect of an indie genre convention. This video follows many conventions of the music’s genre. This song and video would fit into the ‘indie’ genre. The video follows conventions as it includes both performance aspects and storyboard aspects.

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and

particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body

Throughout this video there is no obvious link to any notion of looking or that of a female

or male body. The main theme is off a party scene and that of which no obvious male or female gaze is present. For that reason this video has no

notion of looking.

The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style) &There are

often intertexual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music videos etc).

This band don’t appear to have any iconography that intentionally run across all their work. The only possible link between other videos is the use of the members in the videos and the theme of parties or friends. There are no massively obvious intertexual references, however the video does take the appearance and style of many American high school movies and many other videos from other American indie rock groups, including many stereotypical activities of adolescents, like drinking and smoking.