Goodwin's Theory Debate

Goodwin's theory may offer some points as to improving a music video, however it is not the only way that a music video can be successful. We were given the statement "Meeting Goodwin's points is a sign that a product is good" and had to debate whether this valid or not. We have researched videos which do follow the theory, and others which don't. However, all the videos are considered successful.

For:
It's typical of pop/mainstream music videos like Katy Perry's "E.T." to follow the theory more closely. There are costume changes, bright colours and experimental styles which are all typical of the pop genre. The lyrics of the song match with visuals, Katy wears several alien-like costumes and the narrative follows an "out of this world" narrative. In relation to selling the artist, Katy Perry is trying to push boundaries and appeal to the same audience as Lady Gaga. We can see this because the video is what many would consider "weird" and "experimental", which is Gaga's trademark style. There is also some deep intertexuality, the video references "Born This Way", post-apocalyptic era, and the "Alien" films. The music video has over 130 million views on YouTube, this represents it's success.

Against:
"Fight For Your Right Revisited" is a long music video which follows the conventions of a short film. The video does use some intertexuality of the Back to the Future car, and the original Beastie Boy costumes etc. Although this is the only point that it fulfils from Goodwin's theory. The reason the music video is successful is because it has a clear and comic narrative, the audience is interested and engaged by this. Therefore, it doesn't matter if the video follows the rest of Goodwin's theory as the audience is not concerned with this. The music video is very long (almost 30 minutes), which results in the music part of the video becoming second to the actual dialogue and narrative.