Goodwin's Music Video Analysis - Leona Lewis - Better In Time

Genre Characteristics:

In this music video called 'Better In time' by 'Leona Lewis' the key characteristics is the stage performance along with concept elements in her video. She is in the 'Pop' genre of music but not the common category of that genre, she is not like the usual american pop artist, she is a British artist and has her own style involved in her songs and music videos such as with her the videos are not 'cheesy' but more sophisticated. In this music video it does not follow the generic conventions that are stated by Goodwin which are that all pop music videos have the same characteristics. Usually Pop videos tend to be mostly narrative because the song with usually about a story which is then produced onto the music video and they also tend to performance based videos like this video where you see the artists singing throughout the video in a variety of shots like mid shots and close ups. In 'Better In Time' the set is dressing room of her video/photo shoot and the video is portrayed behind the scenes but is really filming her sing while she is getting ready by getting her make up done or her hair for example. It's also based on the set of the video/photo shoot where she is all 'dolled' up and is in a really nice dress which shows her class and not what normal teenage pop artist would wear.

Relationship Between Lyrics and Visuals:

In this music video there is a very strong contradicting relationship between the lyrics and visuals in the song. For example in her lyrics she sings "Since there's no more you and me (no more you and me), It's time I let you go so I can be free", from reading her lyrics this song is about moving on from a break up and so when she sings this verse in her music video, she is in a movie set acting which means there is no real link with the visual being about a break up. The shots used in this verse was tracking shot of her walking towards a window and then turning and walking next to it and other shot used for this verse was a extreme mid shot. This shows her emotion whilst she was looking directly at the camera to try and engage with the audience due to the meaning in the verse. Furthermore, the chorus of the song goes like this "Thought I couldn't live without you, It's gonna hurt when it heals too, ooh yeah, (It'll all get better in time), And even though I really love you, I'm gonna smile cause I deserve to, It'll all get better in time." Throughout the song there a variety of shots used during her sing the chorus such as close ups, long shots, mid shots, etc. If the is song is about moving on from a break up it should her being happy and in a friendly and live atmosphere but the video shows her in a set either getting ready or on set acting. From this, I noticed that the lyrics and the visuals don't have a relationship between them but it does go well with what she'd done by showing that she is moving on with her life career wise rather than her personal life and this what the video is trying to show.

Relationship Between Music and Visuals:

There is a very strong relationship between the music and visuals in a illustrative way. This is shown by the shots used in the music video. For example, the long shot in the video zooming in to a close up of her allowed us the audience to only focus on her which shows that she is the lead in the music video as all the attention is on her. This is also supported in the video by casting her as the main female lead on the movie set and when she has lots of people doing her hair & make up for her. This is all shown in the music video in a variety of shots such as mid shots, tracking shots, close ups, etc and this tells us that she is the main singer of this song because of the fact all shots used are on her and nothing else.

Demands of the Record Label:

Goodwin’s theory highlights the fact that in order to meet the demands of the record label close up shots need to be used in order to introduce the artist or the background to the audience. For example the frequent extreme mid shots used of Leona Lewis in her white dress and when she is in black and white to make audience know that she is the lead singer and the main artist of this video.

The fact there are a lot of camera shots used to show the artist like long shots, mid shots and close ups, tells the audience and the record label the artist who is performing is portraying the lead role and also the different props and costumes used on the artist in different parts of the video tells us that she is showing us a different side to her. For example one minute she's in her black jogging bottoms & top in black and white which is a key effect as it doesn't grab your attention but then out of no where she is all dressed up with make up and her hair done in colour with a black background to brings all eyes on her and this is how she sells her self for the record label. This is her way of showing that she wants the audience and the record label to know the difference of a normal person and a famous artist. She has done this extremely well as when she is all 'dolled' up she grabs the audiences attention because now she is in colour and standing out in the frame it tells the record label that she is the main performer.

Notion of Looking & Particularly Voyeuristic Treatment of the Female Body:

In this video there isn't any feel to the notion of looking and the voyeuristic treatment of the female body. As the lead singer Leona Lewis wears clothes that doesn't allow the audience to see a lot of her legs and other parts of the body to the full length. She shows class in this video which is done by wearing long dresses that cover her main body except her arms and this is her way of portraying herself to the audience, she doesn't wear anything that can make her look like a 'sex symbol' so she wears clothes that sophisticated 'women' will wear. This is part of how she is different to other artists who are in the same music genre.


Intertextual References:

There are no intertextual references in the music video. This could mainly be due to the fact that the artist may want the audience to completely focus on her song, music video and image and not something else.