Textual Analysis: 'Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run' Music Video

Goodwin's theory was that music videos contain 6 prime features. He pointed this out in his book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'.

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
• There is relationship between lyrics and visuals.
• There is relationship between music and visuals.
• 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.
• There is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• There are often intertextual reference to films, tv programmes, other music and videos etc.

In the music video of 'Band On The Run' performed by Paul McCartney & Wings shows evidence of this theory in effect.

"An official video, directed by Michael Coulson, was released along with the song. It served mostly as a tribute to The Beatles, featuring montages of still pictures from their career."- Source Wikipedia

It shows that the music video's intentions was not only for advertisement but to also to show the past history of Paul McCartney and his previous role in The Beatles. There is intertextual references to The Beatles in the music video with the end showing a collage of The Beatles images to look similar to album cover of The Beatles album 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'.














 
In addition to the variety of The Beatles intertextual references in the video, their are also a variety of lyrics that are shown visualy in the video but for different reasons. For example, a lyric says "never seeing no one" and the binoculars zoom in to a crowded housing estate which shows that the visuals contradict the lyrics which may show that the lyrics are trying to represent more than what the words say. On the other hand the visuals may also illustrate the lyrics, this is shown when the lyrics say "I hope you're having fun and it shows there is a man laughing and enjoying himself whilst he watches The Beatles on TV. In addition it is also shown when the lyrics say "when the bell is rung in the village square" it isntantly shows The Beatles under a church bell. This was used in the video to match the video and lyrics together but the lyrics were also meant to symbolise the past in which The Beatles have had and how it represented making a nation happy and that they were very popular.

Another one of Goodwin's theories that is evident in this video is the relationship between music and visuals, this is because there are 3 parts to the song, the beginning starts out slow, this is shown by low-paced editing of the video and a continuity system thats meant to make the video flow. In the next part, the pace begins to increase with the use of the guitar, the editing begins to become faster with the use of images and video in between the people walking in order to make a non-continuity system. The last part is the main part where the song becomes increasingly fast paced with the use of a variety of The Beatles images and references which match with the lyrics.

In the music video, there is often a lot of close up images of The Beatles, this is another theory that Goodwin wrote about and how the record label wants to promote the image of the artist, although the song was by Paul McCartney and Wings, the references to The Beatles and the advertisement behind the song and the video made the song very popular when it was released.