Goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin indentified key characteristics and features that can be found in a music video:

§  A relationship between visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.

§  A relationship between the music and the visuals.

§  Genres have their own music video style and iconography

§  There is likely to be voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women

§  Record company demands e.g. close-ups of the artist

§  Intertextuality

I’m going to apply Goodwin’s theory to Iggy Azalea – 'Change Your Life':

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rre0sFHlfBc

Genre characteristics

The bright colours, dancing and lighting all suggest this is of the dance-pop genre. It switches from day to night as the song progresses. During the chorus Iggy performs a dance routine along with backing dancers; typical convention of a music video of this genre. Clothing worn by Iggy herself and her dancers also indicate the genre as normally women wear little to no clothing.

Lyrics & visuals

Whilst singing about the finer things in life, Iggy is sat on a huge bed surrounded by expensive ornaments. This ties the lyrics together with the visual of the music video.

Record company

When creating a music video the director is given direction from the record company. They normally ask for the artist to be the main focus of the video and have loads of close-ups which is exactly what’s happens in ‘Change Your Life’. Iggy Azalea is in 90% of the shots.

Music & visuals

The music video is a mixture of Iggy lip syncing and dancing. The cuts between shots in the music video go faster and more frequently as the music goes to the chorus and the upbeat tempo to go with the music. The dancing goes in time with the music e.g. at one point the backing dancer kick their legs to the beat of the song.

Voyeurism 

Like the majority of videos in the past few years women are sexualised; this is no different in 'Change Your Life'. From the start Iggy is in little clothing (small bikini), as the video progresses other women are seen in underwear. In the explicit version of the video Iggy poses topless whilst coming out of the pool.

Intertextuality

At the start of the ‘Change Your Life’ music video when the music begins to play text appears over a shot of a swimming pool. The first set of text indicates to the audience the artist – Iggy Azalea. This is followed by the name of the song. Both of the texts are in white to stay consistent but the fonts are different. 

Controversial music videos

The music industry today is made up of thousands of artists all fighting for fame; one of the ways they use to try and capture people’s attention is through their music videos. More and more artists are creating controversial music videos in the hope it goes viral.

Madonna – Like a Prayer

The first showing of the ‘Like a Prayer’ was aired in 1989 on MTV after the song was used in a Pepsi commercial. The video was deemed as controversial by MTV and many music critics. One critic from The Daily Schenectady Gazette stated “the video is vulnerable to charges of being blatantly provocative in its calculated blending of sex and religion”. Religious groups across the world protested against the video as they believed it portrayed Christianity unfairly and contained offensive Christian imagery. However Madonna went on to win several awards for her controversial video, the video is even number two on VH1’s Greatest 100 Videos list. 

Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines

The majority of people had never heard of Robin Thicke before his single ‘Blurred Lines’. The reason why Robin Thicke’s video is seen as controversial as features three naked female models and because of this it was originally banned from YouTube. Banned music videos tend to generate a lot of hype on the internet as people want to see what the big deal is and look it up. It’s no doubt that because of the controversial music ‘Blurred Lines’ became a bigger hit than it would have. ‘Blurred Lines’ has also been criticised by a UK charity that provides help to rape victims saying that some of the lyrics are sexually violent. As of September 2013 the unrated version of ‘Blurred Lines’ sits at 18.6 million views on YouTube and the clean version at 166.5 million.

Nirvana – Heart-Shaped Box

One of the main controversial points in this video is that the young featured is wearing an outfit very similar to those of the Klu Klax Klan; this in itself raised a few eyebrows. Also the video contains graphical images of unborn babies which can be seen throughout the video. Some people believe that Nirvana created this music video with the sole purpose of provoking their audience and to generate a discussion on the topics featured, if this is the case they certainly achieved it. Just like Madonna Nirvana went on to win several awards for this video. 

Initial Idea