Analyses of the Key Conventions of Music Videos

I will be analysing three music videos and find out which conventions of Andrew Goodwin they follow. The music videos I will be evaluating are: MIA- Bad Girls, Lady Gaga- Paparazzi and Azealia Banks-212.

The first music video I am analysing is MIA- Bad Girls. This music video features specific hip-hop characteristics, such as: cars and jewellery. It also contains many close-ups of the artist. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals are noticed throughout the video. An example of this relationship is through the lyrics “living fast” at this point a car is seen speeding down a highway. Another example of this correlation is when MIA says continually “chains” which she is seen to be promoting throughout the video. As well as that, there is a relationship between the pace and tone of the music and the visuals in the music video, this is made apparent when the fast beat kicks in as a fast car is in the shot. The music video is clearly performance based as the artist is generally in all the shots and singing the lyrics. In the beginning of the music video there is a reference to the notion of looking, as the men are not aware of themselves being filmed.

The second video I am going to study is Lady Gaga- Paparazzi. The specific genre characteristics that this music video contains are: dancing, skimpy clothing, expensive settings, jewellery and a car. All of these characteristics are generally found in videos from the pop culture or pop sub-cultures. There are many close-ups of the artist and her body is displayed often due to her lack of appropriate clothing, which is considered a norm in pop-videos. When the artist sings the words “snap snap” flashes of light are seen on the screen. We can assume that these flashing lights represent the cameras of the paparazzi, which is associated with the chorus and title of the song. The relationship between the pace of the music and the visuals is evident when the beat of the music jumps, as so do the shots in the video. It is obvious that the music video is narrative based, however it also contains elements of a performance based video.

Finally, the third video I am going to scrutinize is Azealia Banks-212. This video does not feature any specific hip-hop characteristics conversely it does challenge it. Instead of presenting inappropriately dressed women and cars, etcetera, the artist is dressed very casually and is always on her feet. There are many close-ups of the artist, the whole video is mainly focused on her dancing and singing the lyrics, which is why it is noted that the video is performance based. Some lyrics appear on the screen, suggesting a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in the music video. As well as that the relationship between the pace and tone of the music and visuals, is made apparent when the music slows down. This is because when this happens the artist also slows down her pace (she is not as jumpy as she is in the rest of the video).

To conclude, these music videos follow most of Andrew Goodwin’s conventions. However, the one that all three of these videos failed to feature in their video is intertextual references to other media texts, but this may simply be because it is not the artists did not wish to.