Andrew Goodwin

"Music videos ignore common narrative as they are essentially advertisements. As consumers, we make up our own meaning of a song in our minds: a music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of achoring meaning"

This is Andrew Goodwin's theory around music videos, of which he has 6 different conventions:

1. A relationship between the lyrics and the visual which illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.
2. Thought beats: seeing the sounds (the relationship between the music and the visuals, which amplify or contradict the music.)
3. Genre-related style and iconography present
4. Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist: the creation of a star image to promote a recognisable brand image.

5. Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
6. Intertextual references to other media texts may be present, especially in humourous videos.

I have applied this theory to the video of 2013 hit 'We Can't Stop' by Miley Cyrus



1. There is definitely a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as the song is based on the life of partying and not caring about what society or anyone else thinks. The video is focused in a party setting completely with no real narrative behind it.





2. A lot of the visuals match up with the music in the video, such as during the first verse when the man takes a bite out of his money sandwich when the drum hits at 0:26.

3. This song was Miley Cyrus's first single since becoming inspired and bringing a lot of hip-hop culture into her music after many pop-rock albums so it features a lot of this throughout. One infamous example is the notable 'twerking' dance found throughout, which is now an icon of 2013 rap music and culture, as well as the jewellery on most of the actors and how they dress.

4. There are close-ups of the artist throughout the video as she looks to make her new haircut and look her brand image in contrast to the 'good girl' image she held for years before.






5. There is definitely voyeurism in this video, which has gaining it some criticism. This ranges from Miley Cyrus in revealing clothing, the suggestive dancing and general behaviour in the video.






6. I couldn't recognise any intertextual references in this video, as it seemed to be more original content to promote her new image and style of music.