Goodwin’s theory applied to Vivian Girls – Take It As It Comes

Louise Fisher 6081

Music video analysis

1. Music video demonstrate genre characteristicsVivian Girls are an all girl Indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York. Their music videos demonstrate these indie characteristics and in this particular case the music video Take It As It Comes uses a performance structure in a narrative where the girls are singing the song as well as telling a story. This technique is used by a lot of indie bands because it helps to emphasize the lyrics and their meaning.

The mis-en-scene in this case is one of the main factors to why this music video would instantly be branded as an indie band, by using old and retro props with the theme of the music video being 80’s American they really achieve this look with a small clustered, and girly room

2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals (illustrative, amplifying, and contradictive) By using Goodwin’s theory I can see in the music

video ‘Take It As It Comes’ the relationship between the visuals and lyrics is amplifying. For example in the opening lyrics it says “Should I call Johnny? What else to do? Alone on a Saturday night” , when these lyrics are played the onscreen visuals focus upon a girl alone in her room on the phone to her friends. From the way the camera cuts to a different position of her lying on the bed the audience straight away know that she is love sick which reflect the lyrics of wanting to get with the guy she is in love with. Because the band have adopted quite a distinctive 80’s theme with their music, it is also reflected in their music video. For example, the relationship with lyrics and visuals is particularly amplifying at 1:00 because the lyrics are “To find true love, you gotta first look like yourself “ and onscreen, the screen is cut into two to show a connection between the two friends which lets the audience know that they are talking to each other and the friend is giving her advice.

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (illustrative, amplifying and contradictive)By using Goodwin’s theory I can see in the music video that the

relationship between music and visuals is also amplifying and illustrative. Because the performance (of the girls singing) is embedded in the narrative of the music video it really compliments the style of the 80’s American teenage love dilemma well. For example the editor has purposely used conventions of an 80’s movie into their music video which reflects their music well because their music follows the genre of 80’s indie rock. At 0:19 in the music video the editor has made a insertion of another shot into the frame of the friend of the phone which immediately signifies to the audience that they are both talking to each other through the phone. Also the low beats used at the beginning of the music video echo the slow paced cutting rhythm which are purposely used because the main girl is love sick and sad. However when the music turns upbeat and fast pace all of the girls begin to get happier.

4. Demands of the record labelGoodwin’s theory states that the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist in order to introduce the band to the audience. This music video is a good example of Goodwin’s theory because lots of close ups are used to create a good relationship with the audience.At the beginning of the music video, a close up and shallow focus of a telephone is used with the girl lying in the background (out of focus); the telephone used as an old 80’s retro prop which really sets the scene of the 80’s. By using lots of close ups, the band are selling themselves as an indie pop/rock band because the audience are able to see that the band particular follow a quirky an distinctive and old-fashioned style from the misenscene and all the props and costume there are wearing really adopt this 80’s theme style.A lot of close ups are used of the girl’s face which shows the audience her expression of being love sick and longing to be with the boy she is in love with – this really helps to explain the narrative of the music video which a lot of indie bands normally do.

5. There is frequent notion of lookingThe music video for “Take It As It Comes” disproves Goodwin’s theory because the music video shows no signs of voyeuristic behaviour (sexual treatment of the female body). I believe that the record label purposely decided not to include this in their music video as a large percentage of their fan base are females and this could make them feel uncomfortable and as if they were objects.From statistics on YouTube I was able to gather this information to prove that the majority of their fan base are female:

There is no notion of looking in the music video, I think the editors of the music video wanted the audience to concentrate on the lyrics of the music and also the girls themselves.

6. Intertextual references (to films, TV programmes and other music videos) In the music video for ‘Take It As It

Comes’ there are no other intertextual references to films, Tv programmes and other music videos apart from having posters of other bands in the background which shares the same genre music as the indie girl band Vivian girls. The reason for having posters of other bands in the background is so that their fan members can relate to other band groups with similar genres. Some Indie bands fan bases tend to be quite small so by doing this it’s a great way of advertising other bands with similar sounds.

7. Video is performance based, narrative based or concept based and how elements of each are used in it.

The music video is narrative based however it has a lot of elements of performance through the narrative, for example, the girls are singing their song in the narrative. It is cleverly put together which allows the audience to make connections between the lyrics and the visuals. It also makes the lyrics of the song far more memorable. I think the record label were extremely brave in constructing this music video because it doesn’t really follow a typical and generic indie band style, in fact it slightly follows a pop style which is more common in the times of the 80’s which seems to be a recurring theme throughout the bands music and their style. The reason why the music video is mainly narrative is because we don’t really see any elements of performance apart from the band members singing like they are telling a story.