Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin
Genre Characteristics and Lyrics & Visuals
Goodwin has made points on music videos, stating different theories applying to representations in music videos.
Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, videos of certain genres have traits of the genre. For example, Metal videos will feature horror type things in them like Cannible Corpse's video "Zero The Hero". With hip-hop videos there is usually dancing.
There is usually a link between the lyrics of a song and the visuals of the music videos. Green Day's "Macy's Day Parade" has quite dark, sad lyrics and the video is shot in black and white so it reflects the mood. The video is also done entirely in one shot so this represents the songs message of repetition.

Close Up Shots
Record labels will want music videos to include close ups and mid-shots of the musicians so it is easier to sell them as a brand. This can be seen in most music videos if any of the musicians are performing  or even just feature in the video. This is used within every genre, from pop punk to country to comedy to rap.

The Notion of "Looking"

This is the frequent reference to the notion of looking, where a music video will feature screens such as a television or things like a telescope that characters will often look through and/or be seen through . It is often used for the male gaze as well, affecting the treatment of the female body possibly using voyeurism. It can also be used to drive the narrative and move the story along or to represent something or be used as a metaphor. Good examples of this are Green Day's "When I Come Around" where a little girl looks through her telescope to see someone and "American Idiot" where you can see the lead singer through a small screen as well as in real life. Other examples could include "Stacy's Mom" is seen through a window undressing and it is used sexually in this context.