Classifying Music Videos

There are different ways in which Music Videos are separated and classified into their own Genre. Theories and systems for this are as follows:

One theory included is from Andrew Goodwin. He states that there are a number of key features in music Videos that help to classify and break up music videos into their own separate categories.

These are as follows:

• A relationship between lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
• A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
• Genre-related style and iconography present.
• Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist
• Voyeurism (Pleasure of looking), often plays a major part, especially in the relation to females.
• Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.

Looking at an example of the video below we can see that all of these features of present showing that the theory of Goodwin is present in most modern music videos.

There are three ways as a whole that videos can also relate to visuals of a song.

These are as follows:

Illustrating:

“The meaning of the lyrics and genre.”

This means that the video is taken on a very literal basis. An example of this is as follows.

As you can see here the whole concept and feel of the video is fairly over the top in the way that everything is played out exactly according to the song.

Amplifying:

“The original songs meaning and effect”

The video adds another layer of meaning – another way of seeing the music:

e.g. Oasis – Rock n’ Roll Star

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Disjuncture:

Work by ignoring or rejecting the songs original meaning. Often bases on abstract imagery.

e.g. Daft Punk – Da Funk