Andrew Goodwin's Theory+ How it is used in Jay-Z's "99 Problems" music video

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. dance routine for boy/girl band).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across their work.
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.) 

Goodwin's theory suggests that the lyrics in a song constantly make references to the visuals on the screen as they reinforce what the lyrics say. Genre and characteristics are mentioned in Goodwin's theory, and these are depicted as the certain traits associated with a particular music genre. For example, in a rock video you will expect to see a live performance of the band playing, along with the characteristics being a lot of black clothing, long hair, boots and other smaller things such as tattoos. Along with the genre characteristics, there is also music videos being narrative based. This means that aswell as what the artist/band is wearing and doing in the music video, the narrative brings the whole video together and explains the story of the music video which is especially important for the audience so that they understand what is happening.

 

Goodwin's theory can be applied to some artists music videos such as Jay-Z's "99 Problems".

Firstly, we can tell from the costumes that he wears throughout the video that it fits well into the hip hop/rap genre of music as he is wearing baggy jeans, chains, baggy jacket, cap along with hoodies which shows us his "gangsta" way of life.

The video has many ways of showing the "gangsta" way of life as it has things like a dark run down setting (Brooklyn, New York), rough looking areas, dog fighting, women showing their sex appeal and also large gangs of people wearing the "gangsta" like clothing hanging around the streets looking troublesome which sums up the whole point of the music genre.

Within the music video, there is a strong relationship with the visuals and the lyrics. This is shown when the word "bitch" occurs and several women are shown that are dressed provocatively throughout the video which again shows that it is set in a rough area as the women are shown to be slutty for the men. Another example of the relationship between visuals and lyrics being shown is when Jay-Z says "Talk to the Lord", and with this being said a clip of Jesus on a Crucifix statue is seen.

In the video, different shots are used to connote different things such as when Jay-Z and Rick Rubin are in the car after being pulled over by the police, the police officer comes to the window and begins to talk to the pair. With this, the police officer is always being shown as higher up than Jay-Z using both low angles and high angles to show this. This shows that the white police officer is high in power and authority compared to Jay-z who is black and shown to be a troublemaker due to him being pulled over by the police. Another example of this is at the very beginning of the video when the camera is going up the stairs and onto the streets of Brooklyn, this shows that the people of that area are at the bottom in life due to the roughness of their city. The walking up the stairs shows how Jay-Z has slowly became bigger in life.