Goodwin & Vernallis Theory

Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music videos. They are:

· A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.

· Genre-related style and iconography present.

· Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.

· Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.

· Intersexual references to other media texts may be present.

He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require. Voyeurism is used to increase the video’s attractiveness, particularly to males, whilst intertextuality is often employed in humorous videos.

Many of these features are present in all music videos, depending on the genre of the song and the aim of the record company/artist.

Vernallis Theory

Carol Vernallis studied editing and camera work in music videos , she has observed edit's in music videos and these are some of the points that she came up with :

· The usual rules of 'continuity ' editing are broken in order to draw attention to what is on screen

· Edits may be really obvious to draw attention to themselves such as wipes and special effects added

· jump cuts are often used

· a master shot base track is frequently used to give the video a structure

· The camera may move in time with the music.