Goodwin Anaylsis

Andrew Goodwin's Theory:

1.  Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
2.  There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)
4.  The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artists.  These include close-ups of the stars face - the money shots
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
6. There is often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.)

Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl


1. Does the music video demonstrate genre characteristics?

• The genre of pop is shown through:
• Very colourful pastel colours
• Fun light-hearted atmosphere
• Main focus on the main singer, everyone else is background
• Lots of conventional close up beauty shots
• Dance routines
• Bright lighting
• Makeup and Hair done perfectly
• Sexualised but in a way females would like and relate to as well as males
• Very glamourous/stylised
• Edited and cut to the music and lyrics

2. Is there a relationship between lyrics and visuals?

Throughout the song, the lyrics match up to the visual which make the video really effective and forces the audience to concentrate on the lyrics as well as the visuals.  This is very conventional and typical of the pop genre as it keeps it literal and simplistic and doesn’t over complicate it or have any hidden deep meaning which will appeal to a much wider audience.  One obvious match between lyrics and visuals in this video was she said soft skin and then on screen was a visual illustration of this:

3. Is there a relationship between music and visuals?

Throughout the song, the video is cut and edited in time to the beat.  This is really obvious in the first 5 seconds of the video, the beat is very fast and each time it changes, the shot changes, this is very fast pace cutting and gives us a visual and lyrical feel of what the song will be like.  The whole video is cut to the beat and the match is always perfect, it’s quite an upbeat song so the pace of editing is kept constant the whole way through.  The cutting to music draws the audience’s attention to the beat and generally makes the video more effective, it the video was cut randomly and not to beat it wouldn’t look quite right and could be quite confusing and disorientating.

4. Is there lots of close-up of the artist? Close ups of the stars face – the Money Shots?

This is very constant throughout the video, although there are other people in the video, the focus is constantly on Katy Perry and close-ups of her face (the money shots) and of her body are regularly used.  Katy Perry’s image is used as a way to target her audience even further, by doing the close-up ‘beauty shots’ of her face, the audience can see her hair, makeup and clothes are perfect which will instantly attract teenage girls and she’s very sexualised in the video with pans and close-ups of parts of her body eg. breasts, legs, eyes, lips which will attract teenage boys.  The beauty shots are generally used to make the artist look good and attractive to the audience.  The record company insist that these beauty shots are used as they will attract a larger audience therefore making them more money, that’s why they’re called the money shots.  These are some examples of the money shots in the video..

5. Is there frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body?

There is a lot of emphasis on and voyeuristic treatment of the female body in the video although she is not objectified as she is wearing nice clothes and is surrounded by girls showing that girls will be able to appreciate it as well as boys.  There are a lot of close-ups of Katy Perry’s legs, at the start there is a slow pan moving up her body which sexualises her and there are also a lot of close-ups of her breasts and eyes throughout the video.  Katy Perry directly at the camera as she’s singing which creates an emotional connection for the audience and makes them feel more involved in the music.  

6. Are there any intertextual references?

None in particular although the sleepover setting and also the pillow fight remind me of typical American high school films about girls having sleepovers etc. so this could be another way of targeting her core audience, teenage girls by showing them something familiar to them and that they can relate to.