Lorde - Royals Music Video

Lorde's music video 'Royals' soon after being published became a viral phoneme. The video is narrative and absract video mainly focusing on four teenage boys. There is a clear link between the lyrics of the song and the music video as the visuals help emphasis the meaning of the song; engaging the audience in wanting to watch the music video a few times.

 Unlike most debut music videos Lorde is barely featured in her video. Only being shown two or three times, which is a significantly low number in comparison to other videos. The editing of the  is mainly to the beat of the song. Aswell as not being featured much, Lorde also when featured is n not singing along but instead in a still frame. There are mainly still / long takes, reflecting the meaning of the song.

The video includes close ups of Lorde herself , her rare appearances in the video make her stand out more which is very affective . The video does not refrence to the notion of the looking or degrading manner or treatment towards the female body  and no intertexual references which  is included in most music videos today. These inconsistencies with  Goodwin's conventions may mean the progression of the creation f music videos and that they are now out dated or that Lorde's video is a one of a kind  acception to his conventions.

These are a few still frames from the music video which I like and would ideally like to have some abstract still frame shot like these in my groups music video.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory on Music Videos

Goodwin’s theory states that there are six different conventions within a music video.
 1) There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The music video of a song usually uses a particular theme and mise en scene to draw emphasis on the meaning/genre/lyrics of the song.

 2) A relationship between the music and the visuals. Much like the first convention this is to draw emphasis on the song. Therefore the music video would be cut and edited to the beat of the song. Keeping in sync with the rhythm; matching to specific beats or notes.

 3) Music videos genre characteristics. Goodwin has said that all music videos fit in a particular genre. For example, for a ballad sung by Adele, the music video would feature close up of the singer, with establishing shots of them. Keeping the focus on the artist and the song, this would be completely different however for an Indie band which music video would have performance shots of the band to fast cuts to the beat of the song.

 4) Another one of Goodwin’s conventions would be that the demands of the record label would therefore included many close up of the artist. This is so that us, the public would remember the face of that piratical song and being to recognize the artist making her known.

 5) In music videos today there is an emphasis on looking. Female artist are usually made to look desirable to the male gender. This is done through the ‘male gaze’. Often creating s voyeuristic view of, and objectification of women.

 6) Goodwin’s last convention of music video is the intersexual references, music videos refer to other form of technology.

"Music videos ignore common narratives as they are essentially 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"