Music Video Research

Complicated by Avril Lavigne.
Her music genre is rock but she is quite unusual as she is not in a band and instead plays with a hired band instead. Nevertheless she fits Goodwin's theory that her music genre shows stage performance. As she is a solo artist, there was not a lot of shots on the band beside herself to which there were a lot of close ups of her as well as incorporating the notion of looking at the camera, addressing the audience. There wasn't any specific intertextual references but the narrative side of the video shows rebellious teenagers hanging around in the mall which is specifically typical of American teenagers. Though not very obvious, there are links to the lyrics and visuals such as when the lyrics mentions "Take off all your preppy clothes", the video shows the rebellious teenagers messing around with "preppy" clothes in the fitting room of a mall.

 

Last Friday Night by Katy Perry
Her music is popular mainstream music with a music video following a narrative concept, characteristic of this music genre. There are many signs of linking of lyrics and visuals. One example is the lyrics "There's a hickie or a bruise" with the video showing Katy Perry pointing at a hickie on her neck. Another is when the lyrics "Pictures of last night Ended up online" linked with Katy Perry looking on the equvalent of "facebook" with embarassing pictures of her. When the lyrics is speaking about how the party "rocked" katy used the popular hand gesture "rock" linking the lyrics and video together seamlessly.



Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys
Both artists are similarly mainstream though Alicia Keys mostly covers the chorus of the song which suggest this song to appeal more to Jay-Z fans (rap genre). From the start and throughout most of the video, transitions of the photography move to the beat of the music suggesting Goodwin's theory of a relationship between music and visuals. This is used so that the viewers take more notice of the music tune as well as looking more deeply into the video. The notion of looking is different from what viewers would usually expect from a rapper who usually look straight into the camera, addressing the audience but Jay-Z is looking at the streets side to side and completely ignores the camera. This is because the lyrics is describe his life in New York City and how he climbed to success so he looks at the street he sees everytime. In contrast, Alecia Keys looks at the camera whilst playing the piano to "talk" to the audience.