Group Post: Research Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin had a theory that there are many different types of music video, the main three being performance, narrative and concept. Other styles include animation and combined styles. His theory said that all music videos fit into one of these styles.

A performance music video is where the video shows the artist or band performing their music to an audience, as if they were at a concert. This can be sourced from an actual concert. An artist may use this type of music video as it is the cheapest and easiest to produce, with no money being spent on multiple locations or costumes, or even actors/dancers. An example of this is Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love', where the video is taken at a gig, and their singing is occasionally directed into camera which helps keep the audiences attention.



A narrative music video is where a story is created that weaves around the lyrics of the song. These are more expensive due to having to pay for costumes, props and set. Typically there are also a number of actors involved, and occasionally the artists themselves are featured in the video. An example of this is The All American Rejects's 'Gives You Hell', where the video is centered around the members of the band arguing with their neighbor due to the two houses having people with different personalities.



A concept music video is created to show an idea or a concept that is quite often obscure and not true to real life, rather being relatable to real life. Due these videos being slightly odd in a sense, it interests the audience and draws them in. An example of this is Fall Out Boy's 'Sugar, We're Going Down'. In the video, the boy that is centered around is presented as different from the others due to the use of antlers, which he is shown to be resentful of as people treat him badly because of the anters. No-one actually has antlers which shows that this is concept instead of narrative as it is addressing an issue instead of just portraying a story.



How this research has influenced me:
This research has been useful to me as it has shown me the different categories of music video that there are in the industry. Also we have decided that our music video is going to be a narrative video as it is going to tell a story throughout. As we feel that a narrative music video will be most appropriate for our song due to the lyrics.