Goodwin's Theory Analysis - Renegades by X Ambassadors

Renegades is a song by X Ambassadors and is part of the alternative rock genre. During this post I will state each part of Goodwin's theory and see if it conforms or contradict them.

1: Certain music genres include certain features.

Alternative rock has certain generic conventions including...

• Close up of artists instruments

• Handheld shots

• Long shots of artist

I have found that this music video conforms to the first stage of Goodwin's theory as most of the generic conventions of alternative rock are present in the music video.

2. Links between lyrics and visuals.

Some shots within the video conform to the lyrics in the song. An example of this is the line "Two kids, you and me". During this shot it shows the first person which then pans to a second person as shown below.

3. Relationship between music and visuals.

The music video has some relationships between music and visuals for example it tends to cut to the beat. As drums are used heavily in the song the music cuts to them most of the time. This is evident from the music video itself.

4.Close ups of artists.

This video contains many close ups of the artists. Below I have an example of one instance., but this happens multiple times throughout the music video.

5.Artist tend to have their own style of music video.

After looking at other examples of X Ambassadors videos I have found that they are very narrative focused and will cut back to shots of them playing in a small room. This is the general structure of most of their music videos. The other screenshot is from their music video for the song "Unsteady" and highlights my point about the enclosed rooms that the band is normally featured in.

6.Videos feature screens within screens or emphasis on looking

I couldn't find any examples of this the "screens within screens" in the music video and this therefore shows that all music videos do not completely conform to Goodwin's theory, but there are a lot of times in which the music video has the artists looking out of frame. Below is an example of this.

7.Intextual references

I also couldn't find any examples of this within the music video which means this is another example of how all music videos don't conform to Goodwin's theory.

Overall Renegades mostly conforms to Goodwin's theory, but like most music video it does not completely conform as is evident from the last two features (6 and 7).