Goodwin Essay

Goodwin

The music video I am analysing is called ‘without you’ and it is by a rock band called Hinder. This band not only comes under rock, but also hard rock, post-grunge and glam metal. However this particular song seems to be more of a pop-rock song. In this music video the characters do not have the ‘rock’ image at all, in fact the girl is seen to be very sweet and the boy is seen to be the usual high school bad boy. This video is the complete opposite to what you’d expect a rock band to produce. The story of this music video revolves around high school kids and love.

Goodwin’s theory suggested that within a music video, lyrics will make a constant reference to visuals on screen, and will reinforce what the lyrics say. For example the music video I am analysing is Hinder ‘without you’. In this the performance is not a dance, however is a little story and this visual story reinforces the lyrics. In this music video the lyrics make a constant reference to the visuals on screen. For example nearer to the end of the video the lyrics ‘it’s safe to say that I’m ready to let you leave’ the visuals on screen are of the girl having a laugh with her friends and the boy is simply walking away, however he is not happy, he looks all sad and glum. Also at the start of the music video when the lyrics are ‘when I watched you walk away, well, I never thought I’d say...’ you see them have a fight and you watch the boy walk away. Then the guitarist starts to pluck the strings of a guitar which corresponds to the visuals on screen which are of him playing the guitar in a big open field. As the music then goes on the visuals continue to correspond with the lyrics. ‘It’s safe to say that I’m ready to let you leave’, the girl gets the result back and she has done bad in it, and that is when she realises that she has to get over him to succeed in life.

I would say that the music does cut to the beat because just as the music starts, every time he plucks the strings of the guitar to start a new note, it cuts to a different shot. For example, he first plucks it and the shot is of him sitting on benches then he plucks it again and it cuts to the girl walking in the hall way, and then he plucks it again and it cuts back to him, and so on. Every time there is a pause in the music the scene changes once the music goes back up again. As the music pace changes, the video pace stays the same. For instance, when the music starts to go fast, the pace of the video stays at a normal pace, although the action on the screen in more upbeat and lively, for example, when the music is slow the girl is only just walking, and then the music gets fast and the girl is having an argument with her boyfriend, and you can tell they are shouting however, the pace of the video stays the same. Throughout the music video, when only a solo instrument is being played, for example the guitar, they do illustrate it in the video. So when the guitarist starts to play his part at 1minute 05 seconds, it cuts to him on the field playing the guitar and stays on him until the singer starts to sing again. 

Genre characteristics relate to the certain traits associated with the genre of the music video. Rock music videos most of the time have some sort of a hardcore performance. However ‘without you’ is an unusually different, there is a narrative in this video, however at points they do show performance in the field, but even this performance isn’t the usual rock type performance.

The girl in this music video has been portrayed as a sweet innocent girl whose heart has broken, however the boy in this music video has been shown to be a popular-girl-crazed boy. During the music video, he is flirting with another girl and then more nearer to the end of the music video he gets into a fight. This shows what sort of boy he is, getting into fights most likely over girls. However the girl is someone that cares about her future and she wants to work hard to achieve the highest, she is shown to be achieving very poorly when she was with this boy however as the lyrics states ‘when I watched you walk away, well, I thought I’d never say. I’m fine with you’ you can see that now that she is fine, she is also academically achieving the highest and she has a much happier, brighter life.

Throughout the music video there are close-ups of both the artist and the stars. The opening shot is of the artist playing his guitar. The shot is a mid-shot and at first is blurred then focuses. This captures the viewer’s attention as they wait to see who it is as the lens focuses. Throughout the start of the music video all shots are mid-shots, even of when they are showing the boy flirting with another girl. The shots then get closer as they show the performance, and when they are showing a panning view of the drums, it goes from an long shot to a close up. Just before they show the first extreme close up, they show an establishing shot of one of the band members playing the guitar, then it cuts straight to the girls paper that she has just got back, and they show a extreme close up of her grade. Not at a single point during the music video is the camera still, at all times it is either a panning shot, a tracking shot or a hand-held shot. Which means that it is moving at all times.

The record company could be trying to sell this track by producing a certain type of an album cover for example this song isn’t very rock but the album cover itself has more of a rock vibe to it, this has been one way to get their audiences attention. Another song by Hinder that has a more ‘rock’ style album cover is ‘Lips of angel’ however at the same time the performance and music video of this song is much more rock based than the ‘without you’ music video. A dominant aspect in both these music videos is the performance the bands give. However in the ‘Lips of an angel’ video that performance is stronger and is more rock style than ‘without you’. They have more energy in their performance and the atmosphere has a more rock vibe. For example in the ‘lips of an angel’ music video the light is dark and they have candles lit up all around. However in ‘without you’ music video, the performance is in a field, that is dark but doesn’t seem to have the whole ‘rock’ aspect to it.

Goodwin suggests that in many music videos women are seen as an object. However in this music video the girl goes from being an object of this popular boy to being her own independent lady. She takes charge in her life and sticks up for herself. Unless somebody finds her attractive, there is no voyeurism intended. Throughout this whole music video the camerawork and costumes do not imply sexual display; however in ‘lips of an angel’ from the start the costume of the girl is implying sexual attention. She is walking around in her knickers and vest top which attract the ‘male gaze’. The reference to ‘looking’ in music videos such as screens within screens etc, occurs at the start of ‘without you’ when the girl opens up her locker and there you see her look at a picture and then we see the picture. Other than that there is no other reference to ‘looking’ throughout this music video.

In this specific music video by Hinder, the main intertextuality reference is the star they use to portray the main guy. He is a star from a big movie called Twilight and from that movie he is well know, and in this he plays the big tough guy, this portrays the stars aspects because he is a built guy and they are able to use that to the best of their abilities and make him look big and tough and like he can pull and girl he wants. At the same time as this, the music video as a whole portrays everyday life, it shows these students who go to school and are encountering problems that normal teenagers may also come across and this to me can either refer to TV programs or films, such as High School Musical.

In the music video I have analysed, Hinder’s ‘without you’, the music video is a narrative based video. The band is positioned in an open school field, and everything else is situated within the school. When the band is performing, most of the time they are in a dark setting, however when the camera cuts to all the action taking place inside the school, the setting goes back to normal daylight and is bright. This is an unusual setting for a rock music video as most rock music videos have a lot of hard, up-beat performances and even when they do have a narrative music video, it usually isn’t this casual.