Andrew Goodwin

"Music videos ignore common narrative as they are essential 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 anchoring meaning"

Goodwin's theory of music videos consists of six main points:
1. A relationship between the lyrics and visuals, these can illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics
2. Genre related iconography
3. Voyeurism, especially in relationship to females
4. Intertextual references to other media texts may be present
5. Thought Beats: When you see the sound
6. The creation of brand or star image through multiple close ups of the artist or main vocalist.

I used the music video of We Up by 50 Cent ft. Kendrick Lamar to apply this theory to:



1. There is a clear relationship to the lyrics and video. The title of the song is 'We Up' which is used a lot in the song. This references how successful they are which is shown through all of the expensive things in the video. This includes the big house, the swimming pool and cars. There are other more blatant occasions when the relationship is used. One is where 50 Cent says 'cheese' meaning money and at this point in the video there is a woman counting money. Later in the video Kendrick Lamar says he, 'bought a bible.' In the video there is a bible on screen.

2. In terms of genre related iconography the video is quite stereotypical. It contains most things you would expect to see in a hip hop video. He is in a big house with a swimming pool and a view. He is surrounded by provocative looking women. He is wearing lots of 'bling.' There is cash everywhere. He shows off his expensive cars and wears New Era hats.

3. Voyeurism plays a very big part in this music video. There is a wide shot from behind to show a woman walking  by the swimming pool, suggesting she doesn't know she is being watched. In contrast of this there is another woman in the same shot in revealing clothes looking directly at the camera. There is a slow motion shot of a woman counting money to emphasize how desirable she is.

4. There is an intertextual reference made to movies with the opening of the video. The music video has opening credits just like a movie with the main actors and the director mentioned. There are also several insert shots of 50 Cents own branded headphones SMS Audio. This may be done to promote is other successful ventures as an entrepreneur.
5. At 2:11 in the video the camera slides down to slowly reveal all of the woman. As this is happening the music also slides down the scale. Just after this the music rises back up and so does the camera but in a different location. It is of a woman walking by the swimming pool outside.

6. Throughout the video there are close ups of the main artist 50 Cent. He is promoting is brand image of being a highly successful rapper. They show off all of the 'bling' he wears and the expensive clothing along with designer shoes. He has always warn New Era New York hats. This may be to show he is still aware of where he has came from on his trip to the top.

I think that Goodwin's theory is perfectly demonstrated by this video. All of the features Goodwin mentioned can be found in this video.