Applying Goodwin's Theory - CASE STUDY

Pills and Potions - Nicki Minaj

Below I will analyse a music video in terms of Andrew Goodwin's theory to further illustrate what he meant throughout his terms.

I have chosen to analyse 'Pills and Potions' - Nicki Minaj as it seems to differ from her expected, traditional videos where she is portrayed as a provocative female, receiving several forms of attention from the opposite sex. This video tends to contrast and appear as if she is 'natural' and 'stripping back to basics.' The track came from her upcoming album 'The Pinkprint' released in 2014.

Theory	Analysis
There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals	Within this specific video, there is a constant reminder of the lyric ‘Pills and Potions, we’re overdosing’ where a plethora of pills are illustrated throughout the video. This amplifies the importance of the video, perhaps a hidden message the producer/artist wanted to address or possibly to anchor the lyrics in order to produce an increasingly effective relationship between both visuals and lyrics. The lyric “Even though you out here looking so ungrateful”, Nicki holds the head of what is made out to be the boy who she is singing about, and in this shot he appears to be looking ungrateful – reflecting the lyrics.
There is a relationship between music and visuals	Within the first reference of the chorus, we see a series of rabbits either shooting what look like pills or a rabbit moving its paws in a clapping motion in time to the music – further enhancing the background track.
Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics	The genre of the music video differs from Nicki Minaj’s typical genre where the genre here focuses on R&B rather than upbeat pop songs. The slow rhythmic melody throughout emits an emotional atmosphere focused upon relationships, which is further displayed in the video as she is stripped back to a typical ‘plain Jane’ natural aesthetic. The simplistic shots and actions in terms of relationship throughout moreover intensify this.
The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across their work (a visual style)	As previously mentioned, Nicki Minaj is renowned for having over the top videos including pink hair and outrageous outfits yet here we see her naturally glam and stripped back to basics. Although the clothes she wears are still rather short and provocative, it contrasts entirely with her usual impression therefore when these close ups are introduced we pay close attention to what is seeming to be illustrated as the ‘real Nicki.’
There is frequent reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes) and particularity voyeuristic treatment of the female body.	The attire worn by Nicki is particularly covered compared to her usual context of a revealing nature conveying both female assets. There are still however shots of this voyeurism - including nudity, however seems minor compared to the typical 'Nicki Minaj' and yet the focus tends to be put onto the male actor throughout  - clearly muscly, tattooed and topless. Hence this voyeurism there tends to be longer shots focusing on the male’s aesthetics.
There is often intertextual reference to films, TV Programmes, other music videos etc.	Recently, many videos tend to include Dr Dre’s ‘Beats Pill’, a speaker advertised throughout many music videos in the current generation. This intertexuality happens to match the lyrics ‘Pills and Potions’ as two shots clearly focusing solely on the product help to draw an audience’s attention to the item. Towards the end of the video, Nicki also takes the time to advertise her fragrance further highlighting to fans it is available for purchase hence increasing sales as they admire Nicki 'using the perfume.' This perfume could also be seen as the 'potion' when referring to the track's title and lyrics.

Finding a Track

In order to make my A2 media coursework successful and creative, I would ensure I have an original song by an artist who is passionate about music and would possibly star in the music video. I realised I had a friend who went to the BRIT school therefore is a performing arts student meaning she is a reliable source in terms of confidence. 


She seemed extremely up for the idea and was determined to get the original song recorded and sent to me as soon as possible.

This has given me a good start in terms of getting on with the task and highlighting how professional the track should sound. 

The Three Main Types of Music Video

NARRATIVE BASED MUSIC VIDEO

A narrative based music video is simply a music video telling a story to an audience throughout. Often the narrative would relate to the lyrics said creating somewhat of a continuous flow the whole way through. 

Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" video is a blatant narrative video with a story throughout. The lyrics correspond to the actions and story being told in the video attracting an audience due to the humorous aspects. Despite the fact there is dialect in parts of the video, it is still explained well through the acting.

PERFORMANCE BASED MUSIC VIDEO

A performance video usually consists of the artist/band performing the track as if to an audience or simply just to the camera. 

A typical example of a performance based video is the famous Beyonce's Love On Top. It is typically created to look like somewhat of a dance studio addressing a 'rehearsal' taking place. Yet this focus solely on her throughout the entire video enhances how effective it is to put attention to one scene. This however may not always be effective hence causing it to look unprofessional.

CONCEPT BASED VIDEO

A concept based music video often refers to the music video being based around a certain idea not related to the lyrics at all. They often have a uniqueness to them, for instance, special effects or unusualness with it being unstructured without a fixed storyline.

Lily Allen's - The Fear is rather unusual with it not relating to the lyrics whatsoever. For example, the presents dancing around is highly unrealistic and there is no connection made between the video and lyrics. However, Lily Allen is often known for her unusual videos therefore making it known that this follows her style in terms of other music videos of hers. 

Music And Their Videos Over Periods of Time

Britney Spears: Baby One More Time, Reflection Task

As a class we were set to produce a remake of the famous Britney Spears Baby One More Time music video. In order to do this we had to carefully watch the clip whilst identifying the types of lengths and types of shots. By doing this we were able to plan out how we were going to film the remake of the video making it successful as possible. 

Below is a copy of the plan used to assist in producing the remake of the video:

Throughout the process of recording the video, it was difficult to keep the continuity the same as when filming during a free study session at school, there weren't many students available to help act as extras. This meant that it often resulted in the same person acting as several parts. In this sense we could have planned ahead and ensured we had more actors to furthermore increase the standard of the video. When filming it was difficult to interpret how long a shot actually was due to the large number of shots within one second. This made it difficult to edit as there were many shots to fit in the time period making it a tricky and fiddly job. In terms of the dancing and singing in the video, we did not have enough time to find someone who was confident enough to act as Britney, therefore some of the shots come across as rather poor and weak in terms of seriousness and acting. However, the initial purpose of the exercise was to look at how many shots and how they moved from one to another rather than focusing entirely on the acting and performance skills needed. As we filmed within the school it made it difficult to find places with the correct lighting and sound where it was not echoing or too dark. Due to it being a school exercise, there were no costumes used again decreasing the professionalism of the video. It made me realise the plethora of necessities needed in order to produce a high quality, effective music video including the wide variety of shots needed, the mise-en-scene and how necessary it is to have a narrative story throughout the clip through acting. Overall, the detail is extremely important - the costume, make up, performance and editing skills all have to be high standard and professional to result in a success.

Analysing Existing Effective Music Videos

Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract

This specific music video is extremely successful having merged both types of 'world' - animation and real life. The interaction between both characters - Paula and the cat, create a humorous response to the lyrics completely corresponding to the line and title, "Opposites Attract." Furthermore, the abstract juxtaposing theme adds a uniqueness to the video due to the persistent changes between costume and scene involving creativity. Following the lyric, "two steps forward, two steps back", the action is portrayed within the video clearly emphasising the comedic aspects of the video.

Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice

Following the previous video, this music video also fits into the category of comedic and unrealistic. The actor, Christopher Walken (who is renowned for playing antagonists) acts as a hotel guest, legitimately flying and frolicking around the somewhat empty hotel to an upbeat dance track by Fatboy Slim. The entire concept of this video is juxtaposed with the audiences original and initial perspectives of Christopher Walken being questioned throughout. For instance, the attire worn by the character is what seems to be a businessman therefore at the time he begins to dance to the track, already comedy is produced. Following on from this, the track allows the character as if to escape from normality by at the end returning to a normal state of affairs. The entire abstract content of the video created much happiness when watched by audiences resulting in the artist being rewarded with 6 awards for this video.

The Fray - Heartless

The Fray cleverly in this video use drawings to help guide a story along whilst enticing an audience through the information being fed via the imagery. The use of a child automatically collects sympathy from an audience corresponding to the minor audio emitting depressing and emotional vibes. These two ideas cleverly work together by the animation of the drawings coming to life, as if to 'guide' viewers through the lyrics by visual aspects. Using drawing somewhat leaves an audience to create their own perception of the lyrics adding originality and uniqueness to the video, contrasting completely with the previously two analysed videos above. 

Overall, the visuals used within a music video have to be enticing for an audience by either extracting sympathy or laughter in order to keep them intrigued and enticed by the track. However, I have learnt that the visuals could completely juxtapose with the lyrics in the right way to create humour yet I think if this was not done to a professional standard, it could come across as a poor and weak music video.