Textual analysis of existing music videos

Goodwin's Theory:

1.Music videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics

2.There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals

4. The demands of the record label will include the need

for lots of close-ups of the artist

5. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style)

6. There is frequent reference to the notion of ‘looking’

(screens within screens, filming, cameras) and particularly voyeuristic (pleasure through looking) treatment of

the female body

7. There are often intertextual references – mostly to film, television and popular culture

Using She & Him's music video for 'In The Sun' we can apply Goodwin's theory to analyse
this particular video.

The main concept of this video is performance based with very little, if anything, narrative. It focuses on 'She' dancing around a school whilst lip synching the song. However, there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. During the song Zooey sings the lyrics "it's hard to be ignored. When I look at you, you look so bored" it shows the main male character looking bored, all alone in a room. The dancing is very upbeat which means the relationship between the up tempo music matches the visuals. 

There definitely is a lot of close ups mainly of the female singer in the music video, we can see this even in the thumbnail of the video itself. 

An intertextual reference could be the blatant product placement of the band themselves CD cover on the locker at the beginning of the video. 

I particularly enjoy the upbeat feel of the music video even though the song itself is about a relationship that hasn't worked out and ended on bad terms, I assume. The message in the song however, is also about being "alright" and "ok" which I think is portrayed in the music video because of the dancing and happy nature of the music video. The colours used in the video are all very warm and cheery which helps the audience feel positively towards the product.