Goodwin's theory case study

According to Goodwin music videos may be structured using match on action combined with a strong sense of story telling which either illistrated, amplifies or contradicts the lyrics. Goodwin's first rule argues music videos should demonstrate genre characteristics, of which the music video above achieves well. Goodwin's second rule argues that there must be a strong relationship between the audio and the visuals within a music video, although the visuals can either challenege or cemente the lyrical meaning of the song. Goodwin argued that music video's must demonstrate or challenge set genre characteristics which have been built up through the development of various media repeatedly and make inter-textual references to other media texts which may have made an impression on the film maker or the genre development as a whole. The cover of the iconic "Ghost Town" orginally by The Specials acted as a depiction of social breakdown during the 1980's when unemployment in the UK was at its lowest. The Hot 8 Brass Band redepictioned this by creating a relationship between the iconic socially aware lyrics with visuals which illistrate and amplify the point of the song, in order to paint a picture of zeitgeist, showing poverty, a run down society and political uncertainty. The music and video demonstrates generic conventions with the performers ethnicity being Afro Caribbean as are the roots of the ska and reggae genre.    What is so interesting about this, is that the band go to a run down disaster struck town to film the video in order to show the severity of the issue in question within he lyrics, and therefore i would argue that the video stays very within the rules of Goodwins narrative theory and effectively uses generic conventions in order to create a tribute to the music and the struggles of the past.

-A bbc article about how "Ghost Town" defined the era of the 1980's: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13780074)



"Frontier psychiatrist" by The Avalanches is built around different samples and methods of sampling and is generic and acclaimed by the electronic dance genre. The music video directed by Kuntz and Maguire fits in extremly well with Goodwin's narrative theory as it is firstly in compliance with typical generic conventions, and the visuals are a reanactment of the lyrics/samples throughout the song. All of the instruments are shown throughout the video with a twist, which can be typical of the  alternative electronic dance genre creating a relationship between lyrics and visuals, however thats only the begginging with all of the sample and lyrics depicted visually on a stage. lighting and match on action is used to cut to/ focus on reanacting the audio at all times, using lighting and cuts to seperate the relavent bits from the non relavent with reference to the audio. This video heavilly uses Goodwin's theory throughout the video and was a runner up for the "best music video" award in 2002, of which it came 19th.