Forms and Conventions- Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin; media theorist, identified key features of music videos that he wrote in his book on the rise of MTV 1992. Goodwin researched and identified features which distinguish music videos as a form. These seven features were:

• A relationship between visuals and lyrics (illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
  


• A relationship between music and visuals
  


• Particular music genres have their own style and iconography
  


• Demand of the record company for close-ups of the main artist. Artists may develop motifs which recur across their work
  
• They demonstrate genre characteristics
  


• Frequently reference to notion of looking e.g. telescope. And particularly voyeurism in the treatment of women.
  


• Likely intertextual references, to other music videos films tvt texts, etc.

These 7 points give a general over-view of the types of forms and conventions that are present in general music videos. Bearing these key elements in mind, I must make sure that some of these points, if not all are included in my own music video.

In doing this, I will be following Andrew Goodwins elements of the forms and conventions included in music video, which would then allow the audience to make a decision on the type of reading they obtained from the media text.