Music Video Analysis - Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's Theory of Music Videos says that:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics 
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 recur across their work
5. There is frequent reference to the notion of 'looking' and particularly voyeuristic (the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviours and actions considered to be of a private nature) of the female body
6. There is often intertextual reference 

Video Analysis: 

Robbers - The 1975 (indie) - concept/narrative. 
This video proves Adam Godwin's theory due to it's lyrics and music matching the visuals. For example, there are constant references to violence and guns, "If you never shoot you'll never know," and "Well now that you've got your gun," in which the leading actor, Matt Healy, has a gun and uses it later in the video, as well as getting shot himself. Then when the lyrics "You find out everything's going wrong," are heard just before he gets shot, their planned robbery goes wrong, showing a foreshadowed relationship with the visuals and the lyrics.

Finally, during the end, the characters speak the lyrics, "You look so cool," to one another which matches the lyrics to the video.  As well as all this, the song title relates to the actions in the video as they are seen robbing a bank, so therefore are referred to as "Robbers," which is the title of the song. These all prove his theory of the music and lyrics' relationship with the visuals as well as the video demonstrating the indie/rock genre of the band, song and video.


The motifs of Matt Healy, the frontman of the band and this video, are clearly shown with multiple close ups and shots of him drinking, smoking and doing drugs which he does frequently in real life. This includes the people/characters around him also being associated with these habits as well, including love interests and band members, so this is portrayed in the video which ultimately
makes it seem more realistic.
As shown in the screenshots of the video, the love interests in the video are constantly associated with or are doing drugs, smoking or drinking. Cigarettes and alcoholic drinks are constantly passed around by the band, which is a common prop in the video since the band themselves are constantly seen with them in real life.

There's little voyeurism when Matt Healy and his love interest are being intimate in their room and the camera cuts to them for a no longer than a second, which makes it feel as if we're watching them. But other than that, the male and female lead are seen as equals as they are both constantly showing their body parts, e.g. her legs or his torso. This partly goes against the theory as the male isn't superior to the female and when the voyeuristic moments take place, it feels as if we're looking at both of them, not just her.

The concept of the song was inspired by the 1993 novella and film, True Romance (the idea of an ill-fated robbery with a dangerous romance) which then lead onto the video being made about the song and the robbery. This means that there's a form of intertextual reference to the book and film in this video which in turn proves Godwin's theory. But other than that, there are no other references to other media texts throughout the video so it only proves the theory a little bit as only the concept of the song and video were based from it, nothing else in them does.