Genre Characteristics in Music Videos - Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin in Dancing in the Distribution factory (1992) identified that there were several different types of performances in metal videos and dance routines for boy/girl bands.
The typical type of description that would be given to a metal band would be that the band members would have: Long hair, tattoos and wear leather clothing. Now when metal band members are performing, you will see the band members playing their instruments in the song but in some cases there will be a back story behind the song. For example, the song by Drowning Pool, Let The Bodies Hit The Floor, there is a person in a mental asylum maybe suggesting that the people are trying to get inside his head.

 

Next you will have the generic boy bands such as New Kids On The Block and Boyzone. The normal style that they do is sing on stage and generally have a dance routine while perform their song. This promotes the song that they are doing so that younger teenagers will try to perform the dance routine. This is also used in girl bands such as Spice Girls or Girls Aloud which also dance during their songs

Lastly, Andrew Goodwin also recognised that there was a unique relationship between the music and visuals in a music video. He was able to recognise that the beat included in the song will change the pace of the editing of the song. For example, in Michael Jackson's Beat It video the pace of the song to begin with is very slow and while the dancing begins the pace starts to increase. This  can also be seen in slower songs were the editing will have slowed down and focused which means that there will be a much longer shot on the singer. Finally, in most pop videos there wil often be a lot of edits and close-ups of the singer/members becuase the record label will want motifs which will reoccur during their performances e.g. Michael Jackson's white glove and Nelly's bandage on his cheek. This will try to promote the singer and advertise them more.

Another thing that Andrew Goodwin realised about pop video is that there may be references in videos about looking through a screen or telescope to watch the video as it goes on. For example in Outkast Hey Ya, the beginning of the song introduces us by showing a tv presenter through an old TV set which then starts the video and this backs up what Goodwin is saying.

Laura Mulvey says that the camera behind the video can be seen as a male which is said in her book 'The Male Gaze'. This means that girls are seen as sexual objects rather than human beings.