Detailed analysis of music videosAndrew Goodwin - 7 key ideas to identify

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. Stage performances in metal videos, dance routines for boy/girl bands)

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

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

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 recur across their work (e.g. A visual style)

5. There are frequent references to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic (sexual) treatment of the female body

6. There is often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc)

7. Whether the video is primarily performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based and how element of each is used in it

Artist: One republic Song title: Good Life

Concept/narrative: the narrative of this song is about the themes of optimism and contentment.

Features Observations Examples

Genre characteristics

From observing the music video I think that this song would be categorised in pop rock due to the soft tone of the song along with the whistling as well as the instruments that are used within the song such as drums, guitar, keyboard e.c.t. This is also because of the narrative of the song as it is iconic towards other soft rock songs.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is an overall happy mood, which is the tone of the song. It contains the band walking through a field having a good time as well as other people in various locations such as a fairground. There is also a part where the song says “we have so much to feel good about” and there is a shot of a woman who is smiling.

Relationship between music and visuals

The relationship between the music and the visuals is very strong as the instruments aren’t too loud to make the song feel aggressive and this goes along with the visuals as there are no dark and depressing visuals through the music video, they are all light and they contain groups of people which make it look like they are having a good time.

Are there close ups of the artists and star image motifs?

There are a lot of close ups of the main singer during this video, as well as the other band members. There are some motifs that are used in this video, one of which for example is that they are all wearing formal wear making them look very professional and this is done throughout most of their videos. Another example is that most of their songs don’t contain electrical instruments apart from the keyboard, this means that most of their music sound light heartened.

Is there reference to the notion of looking?

There are no notions of looking within this music video, this could be because of the genre of the song as this would be classed as pop rock so It might not contain notions of looking within that genre.

Are the examples of intertextual references?

I couldn’t find any intertextual references within the music video at all.

Is the video category illustration, amplification or contradicting? How much of each?

I would say that this song would be an amplification of the lyrics. This is because there are some point within the music video that could show that the band or the people involved are having a good time which could be symbolic of the title and the lyrics.