Zara BennettAR5704 – Theory and PracticeApplying Andrew Goodwin’s theory to Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran

Applying Andrew Goodwin’s theory to Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran

Andrew Goodwin’s music video analysis has seven key elements to his theory. These include style of filming, genre characteristics, lyrics and visuals, music and visuals, motifs, the gaze and intertextual references. Each part of Goodwin’s theory can be applied to all genres of music, Ed Sheeran’s Galway Girl is a combination of three genres that can be evaluated in part and as a whole by this theory.

The first part of Goodwin’s theory is whether the video is primarily performance based, narrative based or concept based and how elements of each is used in it. The video for Galway girl has elements of performance but is mostly narrative based. This is seen in the opening of the video as it starts with Sheeran playing at a concert, although the performance isn’t about the song it still shows him preforming a song to a crowd of people. This is to show the audience who is singing and also a way of showing Sheeran escaping the confines of a theatre to the streets of Galway. The rest of the video is narrative based and depicts Sheeran telling the story of meeting a girl from Galway and the adventures they have exploring their surrounding area in the time they have together.

(Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl [Official Video], 2017)

The second element of Goodwin’s theory is whether the music demonstrates the characteristics of the music genre. The genres of this song are a mix of Irish folk, hip hop and Pop. The song show this by the use of Irish sounds such as the use fiddles in the music. As well as the Irish themes in the music video, such as, drinking Guinness and Jameson, singing folk music and Irish dancers. The hip-hop aspect is only a small part of the music as in the beginning of the song there is a rap piece, apart from that the main genres are Irish folk and Pop. The Pop aspect helps to modernise the song, this is done by having a club scene where the characters are seen performing modern dance moves to what is implied to be modern music by the way they are dancing and the modern clothes they are wearing, such as, jeans and hoodies. Also to show the fame of Sheeran and implied popularity of his song, he is seen taking photos with fans and signing autographs.

Another aspect of the theory is the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals of the song. The lyrics link well with the visuals as the main focuses of both the video and the lyrics is the Irish girl. This is shown in the video by having her front and centre in almost every scene. Also the setting of the song is in Galway Ireland and Sheeran made sure that the video was filmed there using real local locations and people. An extension to this part of the theory is the relationship between the music and the visuals. This is achieved by the Irish tones to the music which links with the Irish town and people, such as, the red headed barman and the Irish themed pubs. When the Irish dancers are shown they are dancing in

Zara BennettAR5704 – Theory and PracticeApplying Andrew Goodwin’s theory to Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran

time to the music. Furthermore when Sheeran gets punched the music moves away from the lyrics and forces on the Irish folk music to show the intensity of the scene.

(Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl [Official Video], 2017)

The fifth aspect of Goodwin’s theory is showing the artists motif and how they work this with the demands of the record label. There are aspects of this video that goes against this theory as according to Goodwin there should be a lot of close ups of the artist however Sheeran is only featured a couple of times in the video and it is usually only his arm. One of his motifs is still a heavy focus in the video as Sheeran’s tattoos are made a focal point, he even gets a tattoo in the video, and this allows the audience to still have a connection to the artist. As this song goes against the notion of pop his producer at Asylum Records was very against him preforming it ("Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran Songfacts", 2017) this also goes against Goodwin’s theory as a music video should be influenced by the labels demands. This shows how much fame and popularity Sheeran has and how much power he has within his own music.

The second to last theory is the frequent reference to the notion of looking. This theory is heavily shown in this video as the camera is Sheeran’s eyes and the main focal character is the love interest (inspired by Niamh Dunne – real life fiddle player for Beoga) ("Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran Songfacts", 2017) however this notion of looking isn’t sexual but sweet and innocent. The last aspect of Goodwin’s theory the use intertextual references. As his song was written from inspiration from a person and Sheeran’s determination to have both the song and video as close to reality as possible, there aren’t many contextual references. The Corrs is a big influence for Sheeran and allowed him to believe that is was possible to create a poplar Irish folk style song. When his producer voiced his concerns he told him “but there’s 400m people in the world that say they’re Irish, even if they’re not Irish… And those type of people are going to f**king love it. My argument was always: Well, The Corrs sold 20m records.” (Loftus, 2017) This gave him the courage to create song and one other. Galway Girl went to number one in Ireland in the first week of its release proving that Sheeran’s instincts where right.

(The Corrs - Dreams [Official Video], 2017) (Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl [Official Video], 2017)

Zara BennettAR5704 – Theory and PracticeApplying Andrew Goodwin’s theory to Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran

Bibliography07weeksjor. (2017). Andrew goodwin’s music video theory. Slideshare.net. Retrieved 14 November 2017, from https://www.slideshare.net/07weeksjor/andrew-goodwins-music-video-theory-28408660Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory And Analysis Cake By The Ocean By DNCE. (2017). prezi.com. Retrieved 14 November 2017, from https://prezi.com/xbvwybm2ure3/andrew-goodwins-music-video-theory-and-analysis-cake-by-the-ocean-by-dnce/

References Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran Songfacts. (2017). Songfacts.com. Retrieved 10 November 2017, from http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=42233Loftus, S. (2017). Ed Sheeran goes HARD on the Irish references in his new song Galway Girl. The Daily Edge. Retrieved 10 November 2017, from http://www.dailyedge.ie/ed-sheeran-galway-girl-2-3268097-Mar2017/

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Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl [Official Video]. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87gWaABqGYs

The Corrs - Dreams [Official Video]. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BglEyv5O2Y