Andrew Goodwin Research

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin's theory on music videos states that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the music video of a song. He talks about this during his book "Dancing in the distraction factory". This connection can come into play within different ways with the examples Goodwin stating being: Illustrating, Amplifying and Contradicting. An illustrating music video would include imagery that closely matches the lyrics and portrays what the song is actually saying. An example of this would be in Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", in this music video Carley Rae Jepsen is trying to get a boys number, this matches the lyrics of the song which talk about trying to get the boys attention and getting him to call her. Goodwin's next example is the idea of amplifying the lyrics, this means the music video will portray the lyrics in an exaggerated form. This is evident in the song "Firework" by Katy Perry. In this song there is a shot where Katy Perry is singing about fireworks while they explode from her body. This would be an element of Amplifying the lyrics through exaggerating the lyrical messages of this text. The final example that Andrew Goodwin talks about within this theory is contradiction, this element is portrayed through going against the lyrics and what they are saying, it can do this by either going completely against what the lyrics say or by just portraying imagery that may seem unrelated. An example of a song that includes contradiction within its music video is "Pressure" by Muse, although this music video starts off very regular with elements of illustrating as the band is shown performing, as the video goes on the stranger and further away from the lyrics it gets with the ending sequence including a sic fi action scene against gremlin style creatures, this completely contradicts the lyrics of the song and supports Andrew Goodwin's theory that a music video will follow one of these styles.

Andrew Goodwin also talked about the different  genres of music videos, much like the genre of song itself music videos come in different styles, the different genres he mentions in his theory are: Stadium performances, Studio performances, Location, Narrative and Conceptual/ Experimental. Stadium and studio performances are pretty self explanatory and are set in either a live stadium with a reactive audience with shots emphasising the live nature such as shooting the crowds reactions, as of the case of stadium performances or in the case of studio performances they are usually in a professional environment such as a recording studio with shots emphasising their performance. Narrative performances will tell a story within the music video, this could be related or not related to the lyrics however a story will be told, and a conceptual music video will try to represent a thematic idea based on the directors ideas and tends to avoid conventions laid out before it ""experimental" music has come to refer to music that seems radically unconventional, pretty weird, as if to experiment with the very building blocks of musical beauty." (Harper, 2015)

Goodwin also mentions Voyeurism within his theory stating that within music videos include elements that usually the audience wouldn't see such as intimate imagery like nudity or intimate settings like others houses and bedrooms. Goodwin states that we see these more in music video than we would in real life and that directors include these to grab the attention of audiences. "However, it is clear that the shortcuts used by video directors to get the attention of the male audience have rendered vast tracts of music video uninteresting and/or offensive (far more offensive than pornography, in my view) and that this is one very obvious problem that is specific to video itself, since the opportunities for a particular type of boring voyeurism are so much more in evidence here than in previous forms of pop promotion." (Goodwin, 1992)

Finally, Andrew Goodwin also mentions that there is a lot of intertextuality within music video, however he talks about its purpose really only being their to pay homage or even represent some kind of brand synergy. "In fact, it can be shown that music television's intertextuality and its articulation of popular cultural history are often anything but blank. Consider, for example, the variety of ways in which music video clips "quote" from other texts." (Goodwin, 1992)




Reference List

Goodwin A., (1992) Dancing in the Distraction Factory

Jepsen R C ., (2012) Call Me Maybe [Music Video]

Available from:

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

Perry K ., (2010) Firework [Music Video]

Available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw

Muse ., (2018) Pressure [Music Video]

Available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2eKImKZviw

Harper, A., (2015) What Does “Experimental Music” Even Mean Anymore? [Online]

Available from:
https://www.thefader.com/2015/05/08/system-focus-experimental-music

Film Studies Evaluation

Film Studies Evaluation

Throughout this unit I have analysed three different theorists and looked at how they impact cinema and help create more meaning behind scenes in films constructed with a purpose. The theorists I have looked at were: Freud and his Id, the Ego and the Superego theory, Mulvey and her male gaze theory and Lacan and his theory on Lack and Desire. Studying these theories I have discovered how they can influence the narrative and themes of films. When looking at Mulvey and Lacan i briefly looked over key scenes in transformers and the wolf of wall street making sure that i talk about the significance of the link between the theories and the text i was analysing. The theory I chose to analyse deeper was Freud's Id the Ego and the Superego theory, in doing this I looked at the film "Fight club" and analysed how the thematic elements and the mise en scene of the film link with Freud's theory and how both of these play into each other it does this through its portrayal of its characters in each scene with one character usually representing an element of this theory. This links to the narrative point of this film that Tyler is the Narrator, this goes with the idea of the theory that the Id, the Ego and the Super Ego are all apart of a single personality, “Although each part of the personality comprises unique features, they interact to form a whole, and each part makes a relative contribution to an individual's behaviour.”(Saul McLeod, 2019) Therefore this supports my statement that the film uses technical and visual significance to portray this theory as it uses its thematic narrative to portray the key ideas of this theory, as I have talked about during this essay. Looking back on this unit the things i would like to do differently are maybe using more books for my research and spend longer analysing some scenes when referring to my research as I believe i could have improved on my Lacan and Mulvey scene analysis, when moving onwards from this unit I will make sure I put in enough time on my individual research making sure the sources i gather are all from professional and legitimate places.

Reference List

McLeod, S., (2019) Id, Ego and Superego [Online]

Available from:

https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html

Jaques Lacan: Lack

Lacan's theory of lack states that Humans will never be content with meeting our desires and will always keep wanting more. Jaques's theory idea of lack causes desires in the person to arise making the person act upon this desire to please the act just like how in Freud's Id the Ego and the Superego theory, the Id causes the ego and super ego to have to react to please the Ids urges. According to Lacan, humans are born into a condition of Lack and spend the rest of there lives trying to fulfil it. "But the important point is that this form situates the agency of the ego, before its social determination, in a fictional direction, which will always remain irreducible for the individual alone, or rather, which will only rejoin the coming-into-being dialectical synthesis by which he must resolve as I his discordance with his own reality." (CriticaLink, 2018).

When a child looks at themselves for the first time in the mirror they will see the 'perfect' version of themselves. This is developed in Lacan's theory as throughout their lifespan they try to live up to the perfect image of what they saw from that very first stage. This is referred to in Lacans theory as the mirror stage. "The image reflected according to Lacan i the 'Ideal' - the stable and autonomous version which the child does not experience itself and hence yearns to be the other." (Nasrullah Mambrol, 2016)

Scene Analysis

In this scene Lacan's psychoanalytical theory on lack is running throughout. This scene opens up with the protagonist accepting a deal from the federal government getting him out of his illegal activities without many repercussions on his end. The context of this scene and how it links to the rest of the film is important in seeing how Lacan's theory applies as at this point in the film the protagonist has everything he has ever wanted, and has surely met his desire that was set at the start of this film, to become rich, However in this scene it is shown that the protagonist although he should be happy to get out while he can with everything he has gained and the starting desire being fulfilled, does not want to get out. This links to Lacan's theory on Lack and Desire as although he has everything he wanted the protagonist is till desiring more and is not happy with what he has. This goes with Lacan's theory as he states that humans will always be filled with desire and its a feeling that will never leave us no matter how much we try to satisfy it, linking back to the mirror stage as in this scene the protagonist is still chasing and desiring to become this unattainable perfect being that Lacan states infants see when they look at their reflections.

Reference

CriticaLink, 2018, Lacan: The Mirror Stage, [online]
Available from:
http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/

Mambrol N, 2016 ., Lacan's Concept of the Mirror stage [Online]

Available from:

https://literariness.org/2016/04/22/lacans-concept-of-mirror-stage/