Andrew Goodwin wrote a book called "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" about music television and cultural theory. In the book, he discusses six common elements found in music videos: 1) demonstrating genre characteristics, 2) relationships between lyrics and visuals, 3) relationships between music and visuals, 4) close ups of artists per record label demands, 5) notions of looking, and 6) intertextual references. Goodwin also developed the concept of "thought beats" to construct songs for music videos in a step-by-step process.

1. Andrew Goodwin

2. Andrew Goodwin
Andrew Goodwin is an author of the book “Dancing in the distraction factory” where he
talks about music television and cultural theory. In the book he writes about media
cosmetics, critical theory and pop music.
He says that each music video contains 6 things:
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in a metal
video.)
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (they either illustrate, amplify, contradict)
3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and
the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across their work (a visual style)
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking. (screens with screens, telescopes etc
and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body)
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos)

3. Andrew Goodwin
Goodwin came up with the idea that Thought beats are used to
construct songs for music videos. A thought beat is singing the sound in
your head and he said that these were developed in step by step
processes.
Step 1 – Structuring the song (Chorus, Verses, Hooks)
Step 2 – Voice of the song. Identification with the voice as the singing
voice is an expressive instrument.
Step 3 – Mode of address. The song is the story and the artist is the
storyteller.

4. Rihanna “We Found Love”

5. Music videos demonstrate genre
characteristics
In pop music videos the shot that is most frequently used is
close up shots. These shots are used for many reasons, to
engage the audience with the artist, to establish who and
the importance of the artist and finally so that the
audience are immediately able to make reference
between the artist and features of the video.
Pop music videos also contain narrative and the
majority of the time and there is a very deep narrative
used within this video, however it fits the genre as a
common convention of a pop narrative is to contain
a love interest character and which supports the
stereotypical pop genre conventions.
This video also appears to be a hybrid as it contains
a performance feature to the music video. This is
conventional for pop music videos as it showcases
the artist talent and forces the audience to focus on
the actual song/artist for segments of the video as
well as the storyline.

6. Music videos demonstrate genre
Fasts cuts are often used in many genres of music
video, particularly pop, it is used for a series of
reasons which improve the viewing experience
for the audience. Firstly the fast cuts are in time
with the music which keeps the video as lively as
the music itself. It helps to show a series of
images which could be apart of the storyline or
show subliminal messages in a short time prevent
the audience from becoming bored of one long
scene. Finally it is able to increase the
repeatability (which Goodwin says is keys to
making a successful music video) of the song as
the audience will not be able to see and
understand everything that is shown in the short
characteristics
period of time causing them to watch it again.
This music video does that successfully as the 5
shots only take up a period of 4 seconds, but
because it is also so quick it makes the music
video more intriguing because it causes the
audience to ask the question of „what was that?‟
and „what does that mean?‟.

7. There is a relationship between
lyrics and visuals
“Standing side by side” being the lyric for
this visual is very obvious however the use
of the wide shot gives the lyric meaning as
even though they are literally standing side
by side the fact that they are in an isolated,
deserted area highlights the idea of unity
and partnership.
“Shine a light through an open door” being
the lyric for this visual, yet there is no direct
correlation this is because the couple are
representative of the light, implying that
there relationship is full of love and positivity
and the couple coming through the door
shows how this interpretation could be
implied.

8. There is a relationship between
lyrics and visuals
“But I've gotta let it go” being the lyric for this visual is the best way to
pair a lyric and a visual in my opinion as not everything is obvious to
the audience straight away. So at first playing darts may appear to be
fairly random regarding the situation, however the dart is
representative of the relationship and the boyfriend which Rihanna‟s
character has to let go of. The subtle relationship of visuals and lyrics
makes the video more appealing as the audience are forced to pay
detailed attention to all aspects of the video and as well listening to
the song making them unconsciously absorbing the lyrics, compared
to if there was no relation.

9. There is a relationship between
the music and visuals
In this video the relationship
between the music and
visuals play a heavy role is
how the video is as a whole.
Each scene is fast cut edited
in order to match the main
beats of the music. In the first
scene these shots are used
for the first four main beats
which only lasts 6 seconds.
This has been done to create
an atmosphere with scenes
as the song would make as
thought it were playing in a
party. This up tempo beat
and the use of fast cuts
makes the audience feel
involved with the music and
add a lively fun element to
the music video. The visuals
to a song are meant to
illustrate, amplify or
disjuncture and this music
video is definitely amplified.

10. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the
artist and the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across their work.
The use of the close ups within this music video are key, because they are not used as often
as typical pop music videos are used however each close up used is fairly significant as
they portray the artist in a different character role and emotion where it is relevant to the
song and the narrative involved with the music video. The fact that it captures Rihanna is
different emotions such as misery/pain and joy, makes her seem more relatable and
realistic to the audience as they perceive her to be a normal person just like them. Also the
close ups create a connection between the audience and the artist making the artist more
likeable.

11. There is frequently reference to
notion of looking.
The notion of looking is used within this music
video in order to ultimately make the audience
feel as though they are more involved. This is
because the voyeurism allows the audience to
see more than what they may feel is being shown
to them, giving them an inside look, also this
makes the audience feels as though they are
getting more information towards the storyline
and in a sense making the audience more
understanding.

12. There is often intertextual reference

13. There is often intertextual
The intertextual reference within this
music video is showing all aspects of
young British drug culture. This video
captures, how it affects relationships and
behaviour, the physical acts of drug
taking and their view. This video is able to
capture the extreme passion contrasting
with the extreme hate within the music
video. It shows the spontaneous and wild
behaviour that is stereotypically adopted
with people of this type. It illustrates the
different forms and foolish ways to take
reference
drugs which is presented as fun. Most
importantly it shows how selfish these
people are as the video is mainly
revolved around the couple however it
features clips of real life, which implies
how little their lives are affected by other
social factors. It think this video over
dramatises the culture and presents it in
such messy way to show that it is a messy
and uncontrollable lifestyle.