Andrew Goodwin analysis

Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Analysis

Andrew Goodwin:

Andrew Goodwin is a music video director and he believes strongly that there are six key features in a music video, these being:

• relationship between the lyrics and visuals
• relationship between music and visuals
• genre - music style/ iconography
• star image/ close ups
• voyeurism
• intertextuality

Goodwin wrote a book called 'Dancing in the Distraction' as he wanted to share his theory with the world especially other music video directors. 

My chosen music video:

'The One' by Jorja Smith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80J2YroXH3g

There is a relationship between the lyrics and visual, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics:

After reading the lyrics to the song 'The One' by Jorja Smith, I understood that the song is about her not wanting to fall in love with anyone because she doesn't need a relationship. This shows that the theme of the song is love because she's singing about not letting anyone get romantically involved with her with the lyrics 'I don't need no one, I'm not trying to let you in'. The song sets the tone straight away when Jorja starts singing because she sings in a calm voice throughout and its not very joyful. The lighting is dark which suits the tone of the song. In every shot it is of Jorja and most of them its of her so it shows how lonely she is. The narrative of the video is of Jorja spending the night with a guy in a cheap hotel and she keeps leaving and coming back to the room when it gets to the chorus. However at the end of the video she actually does leave the hotel which implies that she doesn't want to be romantically involved with the guy anymore. At random points in the video there's clips of Jorja singing in the bath and out of the bedroom window. This fits well with the tone and theme of the song because it shows how lonely she feels and they are typical scenes to have in a music video about love.  

    

                                          

There is a relationship between the music and visuals, with the visual illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics:

With the music, there isn't too much going on and stays pretty much the same throughout the whole song. However, when it gets to the chorus the beat drops and the music becomes more dramatic as violins comes start to play as well. As the beat drops at the start of the chorus, the video shows Jorja suddenly turning around and heading back to the hotel room. They've done this to show her changing her mind and making a big decision as the viewers listen to the chorus. 

I think that the relationship between the music and the visuals work very well together because there isn't too much going on visually and in the music so they compliment each other well. There isn't any visual effects/animation in the video as its all roar footage so it has a natural feel to the video. It also sets the tone of the video as its a soft/emotional song. With it being a soft/emotional song, the video visually shows warm tones and dark lighting. This is effective because it instantly tells the viewers that it is an emotional song and not happy/joyful. It isn't contradictory simply because both the music and video are soft toned and relaxing to watch and listen too. 

Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography:

Clearly the genre of this song is love as Jorja is singing about not wanting a relationship. Typically this genre of music is listened to by women more than men due to the fact that women are more emotional than men on a day-to-day basis. Young people relate to this genre a lot because they are just starting relationships but older people would also relate because majority would've already been in love or been 'heartbroken' before. 

After watching other music videos with the same genre, I realised that there are a lot of elements in the videos that are similar to Jorja's music video called 'The One'. Firstly, I watched Rihanna's music video called 'Stay' featuring Mikky Ekko and noticed Rihanna did a very similar performance type as she used the same location and prop. These being the bathroom and a bath. In the scene it shows Rihanna sitting in the bath naked whilst singing. In Jorja's video she does the exact same thing. Both videos show this scene multiple times throughout the video and uses short clips each time its shown. A bath scene with the artist singing alone is very common to happen in a music video about love (particularly in a negative way) because it shows how alone the artist feels. 

Onto another artist, Adele is famous for her love songs with her powerful voice. She keeps her music video's simple by showing her singing and walking in the street or just sitting down. The use of micro elements are very similar to Jorja's video because they use the same camera angles. For example, when Adele and Jorja are singing in the video the camera is doing a close-up shot to their faces so that the viewers can clearly see they are singing. Music video's with the genre love, often tend to have the artist singing because it makes the audience feel more engaged to the lyrics.

Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of their star/performers:

From watching the music video, the artist Jorja Smith is represented as a serious artist. This is because she sings a lot and is in every shot in the video. This makes the audience thinks she's a serious artist because it shows she is connecting with the audience as it makes them engage to the lyrics. By having 

Jorja in every camera shot tells us that she wants to be the face of the video so the audience knows what the artist looks like. This may result in Jorja gaining more fans especially on social media ( e.g. Instagram, Twitter etc.) because people want to follow their favourite artists so they can see what their day-to-day life's are like or can get information of when a new single or album is dropping. So having an artists in the music video lets people know what they look like and the audience may be sceptical of following them of they don't know what they look like. 

Jorja's face is in the camera shots most of the time because she is singing and she wants to be the face of the video because of the reasons I listed above. So the aspects that are focused on the most is Jorja's face. By focusing on Jorja's face it lets the viewers see her facial expressions which can set the tone for the video and see her personality. I wouldn't say Jorja is objectified in the video because she doesn't sexually express herself. A reason why she wasn't objectified in the video may be because the song is sad so they wanted to show her being emotional instead and for people to take her seriously. 

Voyeurism:

Jorja Smith's music video does have a voyeuristic nature to it in certain parts of the video. For one being when she is in the bath tub. This scene is voyeuristic because it allows the viewers to see her in a setting where people don't usually see other people, such as artists, in. Having Jorja in the bath tub is a private scene but it lets the viewers connects to her and the song more because it shows how alone she is as she is sad in the scene. Not much of Jorja is shown as you mainly see her face because they want the viewers to focus on her facial expressions and her singing so they connect to the song more. Jorja's intentions of this video is to connect to the viewers and let them relate to it on a emotional level. This explains why she doesn't show much of her body in the bath tub as if she did it might of made the video become less serious.

Another moment when a voyeuristic nature is being taken place in the music video is when Jorja is laying down on the bed. This scene shows Jorja wearing underwear/pyjamas. The viewers wouldn't necessarily see an artist in these clothing's which is why it makes it a voyeuristic nature. This scene is very similar to the previous one of when Jorja is in the bath tub when it comes to voyeurism because they both show Jorja alone but in very few clothes or none at all. Some artists are comfortable with being sexual in music videos or showing off their body's however, Jorja doesn't do this much because she wants to be taken seriously in the industry and connect to her viewers with emotional songs with stuff she's been through. Jorja's representation is shown in this music video as she is shown being professional and taken seriously. 

There are likely to be intertextual references to other music videos, TV shows, books, movies, games etc:

'The One' music video reminds me of other music videos like 'Do Not Disturb' by Mahalia. It reminds me of this other music video because the artist Mahalia is in it throughout it and her actions are very similar as she sings to the camera every so often but also does normal actions as if she's not being filmed. This shows that young female artists can often do similar music video's as it's common for them to perform in the video but also act in it. Another media it reminds me of is films. The use of shots of Jorja looking out the window and her in the bath all alone and sad makes me think of romance films when a breakup is happening or the relationship is bad. The director may of got inspiration from romance films like the locations or camera angles etc, as the song is about love so they both tie in together. This makes the music video come across professional as they have clearly researched on the best way to film a sad love song music video to appeal to the audience.