Andrew Goodwin

Conventions of Music Videos

He stated that music videos started to focus on the main artist, via close ups. This can be seen in the video 'Its Raining Men', in which Geri Halliwell is highly sexualised. The video also includes extreme close ups of Geri, she is often pictured touching her body as highlighted by these screen grabs taken from the video. All these shots contribute to the explicit nature of the video this places all the foucs on the artist in an attempt to promote the artist and raise their profile.

Goodwin also stated that key to most videos was voyeurism. This the 'notion of looking', this is created in videos by people looking through windows, but in many videos showing an establishing shot of a window and then a zoom into the house. The video that I have previously analysed 'Stan' has many examples of voyeurism, whether that be the numerous posters on the wall of Eminem or the first shot in the video of the window, so it makes the audience feel as if they are looking in. Goodwin stated that in most videos there is voyeuristic treatment of the female body as seen in 'Its Raining Men'.

Other Conventions

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
genre characteristics

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals
(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

4. There is often intertextual reference
(to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).
E.g 'Jump' Girls Aloud is linked with Love Actually. (See right) the video for this song has many reference to the film, here is one.

Michael Jackson - Scream

This is the most expensive music video, according to the Guinness Book of World Records with a total cost of $7 million. It did receive 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations and won 'Best Dance Video' in 1995. However I personally do not think this video is his best work.

Whats the Best?

Here is what videos Channel 4 voted as their best 15 of all time.

1.Michael Jackson: Thriller
2.Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer
3.A-ha: Take on Me
4.Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
5.Madonna: Like a Prayer
6.Robbie Williams: Rock DJ
7.Michael Jackson: Billie Jean
8.The Verve: Bittersweet Symphony
9.Madonna: Vogue
10.Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit
11.Coldplay: The Scientist
12.Michael & Janet Jackson: Scream
13.Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall
14.Christina Aguilera: Dirrty
15.REM: Everybody Hurts

The Journey of Music Videos

In 1981, the music video had less significance than it does today, it can lead to the success of an artist. It was MTV who gave the music video significance, and when they aired the first ever music video, 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by The Buggles. This was the first time the music video could actually influence a artists status in the music industry, for example Madonna's career was greatly aided as she became notoriously well known for her sex appeal.


Nowadays, the music video is as important as the song itself, sometimes even deciding the success of a song or artist. Collections of music videos are being sold on tapes or DVDs. Music video's greatest fans are apparently watching them muted just to enjoy their artistic value, as they consider it to be a new form of art. They consider that a music video should be assessed based on its visual qualities and not on the song quality. It seems that the music 'gurus', corporate managers, have realised the potential of using female sex-appeal in music videos, The advances in technology has meant that television can be interest specific, with the introduction of sky.therefore this feature is being used excessively as it is more popular for the public. One of the most sexually explicit videos is Christina Aguilera's Dirty, she is heavily sexualized, the argument is that this video has made the song more popular especially amongst males because of its content.

In the 80's Rowan Atkinson launched a comedy programme called 'Not the Nine O'clock News' it was shown at the same time as the nine o'clock news and was and altenrtaive. The itself programme involved parody songs, comedy sketches, re-edited videos. The catch phrase was 'Nice video shame about the song' this highlights how in many cases the videos were of very good quality and were alot better than the song.

The famous Micahel Jackson video 'Thriller', is seen by many as the best video ever, it was directed by John Landis who was a film director. This completley changed the face of music videos as they became a production and more like mini films.

For example KERRANGS music channel, will attract different audiences to magics. 30 years on the MTV have expanded, into various sections. They have several sections including MTV Rocks, Hits and Base. As well as MTV other companies have their own music channel in which songs are played, radio channels such as Magic and KISS including other well known channels like the The Hits and VIVA have joined the industry.