Andrew Goodwin: The Music Video Theorist

Andrew Goodwin suggests that most popular music videos contain the same elements. If not all of them, there is at least one of the following features in a popular music video:
 
- Music videos generate 'iconography', e.g. a punk band being shot thrashing their guitars and shouting down microphones whilst dressed in a particular style of clothing

- The lyrics in a song are shown through images. These images can either be illustrative, amplifying or contradicting

- The mise-en-scene adds to the representation of the characters, e.g. in the music video 'Jesus of Suburbia' the setting and costume are descriptive of the characters being described in the lyrics of the song

- The tone and atmosphere of the images reflects the tone of the music

- Close ups of the artist are demanded in popular music videos to show them off

- Voyeuristic view of the female body. Also, there are elements of voyeurism across both genders, via the use of windows and mirrors. This can be seen in the "Knights of Cydonia" music video.

- Intertextual references are common. Again,"Knights of Cydonia" has strong links to old Western Films.