Comparing James Blake's Retrograde video to Kieza's Hideaway video through Andrew Goodwin's theories part 1

James Blake's Retrograde video and Kieza's Hideaway are in some aspects pretty polar opposite. I thought it would be useful and insiteful to compare the two and how they fit (or don't fit) Andrew Goodwin's theories, and what different effects are drawn as a result.

1.) Characteristics from their music genres: Kieza's song is within the 'Deep House' genre - which is a mix of house music, jazz and soul. Her song is probably most akin to house - which is described as being 'electronic dance music' - this really is reflected in her video. It can therefore be said that her song fits into this aspect of Andrew Goodwin's theory. This works well because dancing provides entertaining visuals and it can be easily recognized by fans of the genre.

James Blake's genre however is a lot more misty. It's like an experimental version of dub-step, soul and R&B - and even then it is still difficult to define. In their own way, however - his videos seem to fit into the characteristics of the often slow and weird music. You could say it fits into Andrew Goodwin's theory - and it's good because the content of the videos is often just as ambiguous as the songs themselves. They stay interesting and give people the chance to take their own meanings from the text.

2 AND 3.) Illustrative, amplifying or contradicting visuals to the lyrics/ melody of the song: Other than the ecstasy-esque 'high' of Kiesza's 'Hideaway' (as shown below)

'Uh, you send me the shiver and the spine might overflow

You're bringing me closer to the edge, I'm letting go'

There isn't really any other similarities between the music video's content and the lyrics of the music. She dances down the street both solo and within groups in a euphoric manner - which you could say amounts to an 'amplifying' connection between the lyrics and the visuals of the video. This allows audiences to experience the same up-beat intensity across both the sound and the visuals - making that connection fluid and easy, as opposed to contradicting visuals which might require more effort to decipher and understand and which certainly wouldn't be as easy-watching.

James Blake on the other hand probably features a mix of illustrative and amplifying visuals. The video is just as odd as the song and you could take out different meanings from the visuals to go alongside different possible meanings of the lyrics. For example, 'You're alone now' - could be illustrated by how the woman in the video has a motorbike helmet on - cutting her off from everything else. When he sings 'Suddenly I'm hit' and the intensity in tempo and loudness of the music seems to rise, the screen flashes white and the imagery turns more extreme in the video.