Goodwin's theory

In Goodwin’s book Dancing in the Distraction Factory he points out 6 features that can be found in music videos:

o There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.

o There is a relationship between music and visuals, this can be: Illustrate, Amplify or Disjuncture.

o Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.

o There are certain aspects that the record label demand e.g. close ups of the lead singer.

o Reference to the notion of looking.o There are often intertextual

references.

GOODWIN’S THEORY

APPLYING GOODWIN’S THEORY…

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND

VISUALS

“Ripping wings off of

Butterflies”

“Fairytale” “Even in the dark”

“Go get your shovel and we’ll dig a deep hole”

“Her prince finally came to

save her”

“To bury the castle”

“Brick by boring brick” is a narrative based video, the lyrics describe a fairytale land in which a young girl goes to to escape reality, however towards the end the lyrics describe how her fairytale world is much more sinister then she first thought this is mirrored by the narrative which shows the girl entering the fairy tale world, only to enter her castle and find that everything darker than she expected, this frightens her so she runs back to reality. Unfortunately she falls down the hole that Josh (the guitarist) has been digging throughout the song.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND

VISUALS

There are 3 ways in which the visuals respond to the music:

- Illustrate – Using a set of images to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and genre.

- Amplify – The meaning of the song are added to by the visual.

- Disjuncture – Where the meaning of the song is completely ignored.This video is partially an example of Illustrating as images are used to illustrate the lyrics such as the use of a fairytale land and the castle, however the images do not represent the genre as Paramore are an Alternative Rock band and the video is about getting lost in a fairytale and childhood innocence which is not expected from this genre of music.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND

VISUALS

There is very little in “Brick by Boring Brick” that represents the alternative rock genre. The only elements of the video that represent this genre is the dark ending to the video. The music video is mostly narrative based and there is very little performance. The only performance comes from Hayley (the lead singer) but the rest of the band (with the exception of the guitarist who is digging the hole) are not seen once throughout the video, this is very unusual of this genre because most are expected to, at least, have some performance if not wholly performance based. Even the clothing that Hayley wears does not represent the genre as she is dressed in a very feminine, almost childish way.

MUSIC VIDEOS DEMONSTRATE GENRE CHARACTERISTICS

Throughout the video there are close ups of Hayley, she is the only member of the band performing, this is because the record label still want to advertise Paramore and she is the face of the band therefore has to appear in the video. Also butterflies feature frequently in the music video, the young girl is wearing butterfly wings as well – this is the motif for the album cover of “Brand New Eyes” which the track “Brick by Boring Brick” features on.

DEMANDS OF THE RECORD LABEL

NOTION OF LOOKING

The only use of the notion of looking in “Brick by Boring Brick is the use of mirrors when the young girl enters the castle. There is no voyeuristic treatment of the female body because both the young girl and Hayley have a child-like innocence about them and most of the shots of Hayley focus on her face. I think that this video is supposed to appeal more to females because many of the characters that appear in the video are female but not portrayed in a sexual way. Also the fairytale theme is more likely to appeal to a female audience.

It is suggested that the meaning of the video “Brick by Boring Brick” is linked to ‘Monarch Programming’ which is a form of mind control in children which makes them dissociate with reality and go to a ‘happy place’. This could be linked with films such as Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz, also the beautiful fairytale land that the young girls go to, only to discover danger along the way is present in all three.

INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES