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Applying Andrew Goodwins Theory to a music

video:

Track: You Belong With Me

Artist: Taylor Swift

Director: Roman White

Genre: Country pop

Relationship between the lyrics and visuals:

As the lyrics are and I wear t-shirts the camera shows Taylor looking into the

mirror pulling up her t-shirt.

Here is another good example of there being relationship between the lyrics and

visuals, as the lyrics say Im on the bleachers the camera shows Taylor in theschool choir.

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Relationship between music and visuals:

Towards the end of the music video when the tempo of the song begins to slow

down, this allows the audience to focus on the characters emotionswhich are

happy- We can visually see the couple falling in love, this is surrounded by dark

lighting and fairy lights which help portray the joyful and romantic moment.

Particular music videos have their own music style and iconography (codes

and conventions):

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Country pop music videos usually base their narratives on a love story which

we can clearly see in this music video. In addition to this, considering it is a pop

genre song, it is using the typical, American high school life showing the

different social groups such as the popular girls geeks and jocksimmediately suggest it is targeting teenagers, therefore, using these codes and

convention appeal to the intended target audience. The use of natural colours is

typical to see in an acoustic music video.

Often due to the demands of the record label, artists videos will include

many close ups of the artist and will often develop motifs that repeat

throughout the videothis allows the band to promote their image.

Here are a few close up shots from the music video in different angles. This

emphasising her emotions from two points of view, however focuses mainly on

the Taylors expression because it is the main feature in the music video.

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A frequently notion of looking:

There is no reference to the notion of looking through screens; however the

artist does look at the camera quite frequently, creating a connection with the

audience. There is also no voyeuristic treatment of the female body as it doesnt

fit within this genre of music. Although, in the photo above, there is looking at

the boy from Taylors point of view while she sings about what he is wearing.

Intertextual references from other forms of media e.g. films, television

series, music videos etc:

Taylor became inspired to write this song after she overheard a male friend of

hers speaking to his girlfriend through a phone call. This music video is

influenced by the typical social groups in American high school life such as

jocks, geeks, and popular girls etc, developing a storyline as if Taylor (blonde

geek) in the narrative is the girl-next-door. Due to the strong narrative the

video links to romantic films.