Research into Goodwins theory - Miss Georgiou

Andrew Goodwin's theory (Routledge 1992) is his own research and evidence as to what he believes makes a music video. There are a range of steps which he desires need to take place in order for a successful video. These include: 1) Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, for example stage performance in metal video, dance routine for a boy or girl, making it conventional towards the particular genre. 2) There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals, either illustrating, amplifying, contradicting, matching the visuals with the lyrics of the artist. 3) There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals, representing the visuals to match the music beat, through micro elements. 4) The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist who may develop motifs which will occur within their work, for example; a visual style, which helps to build a quick relationship with the artist. 5) There is frequent reference to notion of looking (looking at screens of phones, telescopes etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. 6) There is often intertextual references, such as films, tv programmes etc. 7) Whether the video is primarily performance based, narrative based or concept based and how each elements are used in it. He believes that music videos are important as they help to build a stronger relationship between the artist and audience, this is effective through the narrative element of the music video, this engages and draws the audience to watch their production.

I have decided to use this music video by Sam Smith to show how a particular music video of its genre is represented to ensure that it is successful and effective. The genre of the song 'I'm Not The Only One,' is soul and slow R&B. Most of the video is showing a couple in the 60's going through a rough patch, which is devastating the wife. This is used as almost a short movie to show the emotion she is feeling through the song lyrics. This represents genre characteristics. In parts of the music video, there is slow panning movements to obviously show her type of body language and facial expressions, also going at he same tempo as the song rhythm, to make it effective. These facts also links in with Goodwin's number 2 theory, as there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals, which show as if she is thinking aloud with a song of how she feels.

There are also fractions of the music video where the artist is actually singing into a microphone to show artist performance, which is frequently used with R&B and soul videos. This is shown to show the passion the artist feels towards the song, shown through facial expressions. As you can see from the still image, of him frowning. The relationship that is created is very effective. The audience are able to create a quick and strong bond with the art due to the level of power and dedication he represents whilst performing. Facial expressions were key to include within this music video in order for it to be successful due to the amount of emotion clearly being shown all throughout the music video. A conventional element towards the music genre of soul. The type of relationship between the audience and artist is very strong rather quickly due to the vulnerability all characters are showing throughout the video, allowing the audience to suddenly get an insight towards their personal life and expressing to them how difficult a part of their life has become. The audience then sympathise for the wife and artist as it can be a relatable emotion. This relationship was succeeded by facial expressions, body language and links between lyrics and visuals, making it seem like the artist is actually singing the song at that point, almost making it seem more in depth and personal.


This music video relates towards the music and visuals as there is a story being told to emphasise the level of emotion this song is portraying. By showing a short story throughout this video allows the audience to sympathise for the characters and maybe even relate. It also gives a deeper meaning towards the song rather than watching the artist lip sync to it the whole time. The music and visuals also clearly relate as the song is knowing that someone the artist loves, is also giving their love to other people besides him, which the wife is also experiencing, and dealing with as she wants peace due to the love she has for her husband. This is effective as it increases the relationship between the audience and artist. Not only are the audience gaining more knowledge towards their personal life through the lyrics of the song but also seeing parts of the artists perspective towards their heart break and allowed to see how they wanted to portray the song in their way, which they thought would be most effective.

For each character within the music video, they have at least one close up which are from the demands of the record label. This can be to show the wife's sadness in more definition and detail to the explicit scene of the husband cheating on his wife with another character, and how there is little guilt on his face when taking part within the cheating. Using close ups are effective, as the audience can clearly see the characters clear emotions without being confused or distracted by anything else happening within the particular scene. There are a lot of close ups for this music video as it is a very emotional song, and by showing characters emotions in more definition, can then make the song seem more upsetting and make the audience sympathise for the upset characters. Close ups are important in order to create a relationship between the audience and artist as the audience can clearly see the level of emotion the characters are experiencing due to the level of detail, for example: the wife experiencing pain, being shown through close ups towards her face of her crying.

As this is a sad song, there is little voyeuristic scenes of the female body, as the song is trying to portray more than women dancing around to a song. There is however, a sexual scene where two characters are very passionate, in a bar toilet, from my perspective of the background scenery. Talk about frequent referent to notion of looking number 5. The audience do not see much of the character who the husband is cheating on his wife with, which suggests that she is only used for the husbands sexual manner. This can be seen as degrading women from being intimate with a girl he has met in a bar. The wife however, is shown to be very self respectful, as not much skin is showing. As this is meant to be shown in the 60's era, the fashion for women was having long, puffed out dresses, which is shown by the wife throughout the video. This is a conventional element towards this particular music genre as it is an effective way to show sad/regretting and more feelings in a clear view for the audience without any distractions.


There is an intertextual reference to this music video. As this is a typical love story between a man and a woman, it can relate towards so many films or tv programmes. It seems to set in the past times such as the 60's due to the type of props that were used, for example the cars and type of clothing, very big clothing and big hairstyles. As you can see from the still image, the female character is very well dressed with her hair neatly tied back with lots of volume to pull of a popular hair style in the 60's for women. This is a successful way of building a relationship between the audience and the artist as many viewers would have seen or heard of love stories set in the past time, such as Grease. As the audience have already built a relationship between characters in a certain film, they almost subconsciously and instantly have a bond with the characters in the music video due to the similarities which are being portrayed throughout the video. The type of relationship which is explored through the element of mise en scene (costume, hair and make-up) is very strong and effective.



I would say this particular music video is mainly narrative based, as the majority of this song is mainly about showing a wives emotions and how she is coping with her dead relationship and obviously cheating husband. It is almost like the audience get an insight towards the typical day the character of the wife experiences, watches her husband go to work, spend most of her day with frustration and sadness, to then welcoming her husband home from work like nothing has happened or is wrong. As there is a strong story being perceived all through the video, the audience are able to create a relationship with the characters and artist as they are able to get an insight towards what they are doing and how they are coping in their day to day life during this difficult time.

At the start of the music video, there are credits which also give a movie feel, like it is a short film, the audience are then ready to watch what situation is going to happen which can relate towards the song lyrics and concept. There are scenes in the video to show ardent the artist of Sam Smith is towards this song, his emotions during singing the lyrics into the microphone clearly show the audience how much he truly loves this song and how much it means to him. This allows the audience to explore their personal life and their type of characteristics, this then builds a bond as they are learning more about the characters, what they are life. For example: they could despite the character of the husband in the music video for cheating on his wife and treating her badly, due to the audience getting an insight towards how distraught this is making the character of the wife and how it is affecting her day to day life very negatively. This relationship can be seen as very empathetic. The way of using titles at the start of the music video, almost preparing the audience to instantly understand that they are going to learn more about certain characters rather than a normal music video, like they would for a sad film. This makes the music video even more effective when the relationships have been certified.

After analysing and explaining Goodwin's theory into more detail, I feel like this will greatly help assisting to plan my own music video as it will allow to keep in mind all the things needed for a successful music video. From doing research, I found that all effective and highly successful music videos are the ones who contain all of Goodwin's points in, this has inspired me to ensure I include all of them in my own video and I am excited to put the points into my own ideas and perspectives. I think I would like to include different characteristics within my music video to allow the video to become more interesting, as there is more going on, especially if I decide to choose a genre which is very jumpy, such as: dance and hip hop. Having more than one characteristic and more personalities can also mean a more storyline as there are more feelings involved, if taking part in a slow, meaningful song such as soul. All different genres involve Goodwin's theory within their work but alter it slightly depending upon the genre, which I find to be adequate and useful with the theory from Andrew Goodwin. For my music video, there are a range of theories from Goodwin which I have decided to use within the video played by Amy Winehouse. As this genre is soul, there would be a range of points in which would make an effective music video. A relationship between music and visuals would be an effective use due the audience being able to experience the artist performance as seeing her inner emotions through facial expressions. This also links to including close ups which allow the audience to completely focus upon the artist and her emotions being expressed without any distractions from background situations which would distract the level of emotion the artist is trying to convey, which would only make it less effective.