The application of Goodwin’s theory to Weezer – Buddy Holly

For my chosen video to analyze I have looked at Weezer’s ‘Buddy Holly’, released in 1994 under the labels DGC, Interscope and Epitaph. Weezer are a modern rock band formed in 1992 and have released 9 studio albums. I have chosen to look at ‘Buddy Holly’ because of its unique and interesting narrative and integration of performance; additionally I personally like the band and find their videos interesting and distinctive to their sound.

Goodwin in his novel ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ highlights a range of different concepts and conventions that are repeatedly used in music videos and other forms of mediation. Particularly, Goodwin looks at the idea of contextualisation within music videos. In music promos, there are often references to existing texts in order to spark of recognition in the audience. Weezer’s music video for Buddy Holly, distinctly harnesses this idea. The complete narrative is set in an episode of the 70’s show ‘Happy Days’ which within itself is contextualised within an idyllic American idea of the mid 50’s and 60’s.  Weezer use a wide range of techniques to keep with the context of time. Costume is keeping with the fashion of the 50’s; instruments are also ‘old’ and reflective of what people would play in that time. Additionally, little things such as dance moves, ethnicity of the characters and the grain of the video matches the show perfectly and at times the band (Weezer) are virtually undetectable as their integration into some of the real ‘Happy Days’ clips used in the music video. Buddy Holly was known as a pioneer of rock & roll music and it could be argued that Weezer as a rock band owe some thanks to how he has developed the music industry and helped shape rock & roll music in the mainstream. As such it could be said that Weezer’s song ‘Buddy Holly’ is a tribute to his work and also a distinct contextualisation of an iconic figure of the 50’s creating a point of association for people who will remember Buddy Holly in life.

Goodwin also talks about the idea of looking. Weezer’s music video again proves Goodwin correct in the use of voyeuristic tendencies within music videos.  ‘Buddy Holly’ is set as a TV Show and as such means that you are the viewer watching through a television. The director plays with that idea by opening the video with a presenter talking to the camera as a TV host would do. By doing this the director has played with the position of the audience and created a window within a window. This is frequently seen amongst modern music videos where the band/ performer becomes a lot more connected with the audience and commonly looks into the camera, merging the line between narrative and performance. Along with the notion of looking, the voyeuristic treatment of the female body isn’t as prominent in this video. Women are featured in the video frequently however, their position as character is never sexualised, I believe this is because the narrative and context of the video is set in the 50’s where US television was distinctively more conservative than it is now, and the sexualisation of women, particularly young women was not seen as acceptable by the majority.  Nonetheless, clips of original pretty female characters from ‘Happy Days’ are shown. This can be seen as a considerably more docile version of the sexualisation of women, but nonetheless it is in sighting the notion to look and the objectification of women in the media.

In addition looking at the different relationships between lyrics and music to the visuals is interesting and can be argued from different angles. However, my perception of their relationships are that visuals in the relation with lyrics amplify what is being sung, this is because the chorus repeats ‘Oh ee oh, I look just like Buddy Holly’ the visuals clearly make a connection to the lyrics by setting the video in the time Buddy Holly was an iconic figure amongst celebrities. On the other hand, I believe the relationship between the music style (style of the band) and the visuals are to an extent disjuncture but could also be argued to be an accentuation to the music style that they originated from (50’s rock & roll). I believe that the style of the video is a disjuncture to that of the music style only because of the sound of the music, it sounds heavy and in places uses synthesizers which wouldn’t have been used (as far as I know) in mainstream 50’s music. Moreover, the image that was assume is different to that that is being presented; I assume to see styled down and ‘casual’ clothing, matching that of the laid back and heavy tones in the sound of the music. Regardless, of my perceptions on the relationship between the music and visuals, many different arguments can be made and with each it’s on validity.