In his book Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) Andrew Goodwin points out 6 characteristics and features that can be found in music videos.
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
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 recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).
(From Andrew Goodwin, DANCING IN THE DISTRACTION FACTORY, 1992.)
What evidence do you find in the music video to either support or contradict Goodwin's thoughts?
Aquilo's 'Losing You' is allocated in the pop genre, a category generally associated with love, voyeurism, parties and are centered around the artist; they are the main selling point. Due to this factor, pop music videos are mainly based upon performance. Although narrative is sometimes present in the pop genre, it is commonly overlooked because of the artist performing in such way to attract the audience - in this case the target audience are young teenagers. This could perhaps be due to the repeatedly used convention of love in the pop music videos, as this is a concept young teenagers are usually obsessed with. The theme of love (specifically heartbreak) is also existent in 'Losing You' which reinforces the expectations of the pop category, however, the other features of the video are not very typical of the genre.
Within this music video, the footage is very heavily narrative based with there being no performance of the artist whatsoever. In actual fact, the artist doesn't even appear in the video which is a very rare decision for a pop video; the artist is usually the product that the music label are trying to sell. Commonly in pop videos, there is a key element of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the body, especially females, however in this case there seems to be nothing of the sort. Arguably, there are a few scenes that can be viewed as mildy vulgar (kissing scenes) but when compared to popular music videos, such as 'Rhianna's', this music video cannot be labelled as flashy.
Even though the lyrics aren't fully represented by the video, the visuals and the music alongside each other help to portray the overall atmosphere and tone of the song as the narrative illustrates the story. This is a common feature in pop music videos. The director of the music video, Eoin Glaister, even used contradiction in the visuals: during the first chorus, Aquilo sings the line "and I'm loosing you" which triggers a cut to a flashback of the couple laughing and seeming happy in a relationship, seemingly to better times. Therefore this juxtaposes the video and the music which also indicates to the audience that there will be negative change later on. As the song progresses, and the atmosphere of the video becomes increasing melancholic, scenes of the main character become drown in blue tinted, low key light in order to fit with the tone (it displays his feelings of heartbreak and sorrow). The lighting effect used here opposes against the high key lighting used in scenes in which the boy and his presumed girlfriend and extremely cheerful and carefree. This lighting is stereotypical of the genre of pop because they usually feature bright colours to reinforce the happy nature of the song, however the low key lighting is very counter-typical because it fortifies a miserable atmosphere which isn't common for a pop song.
