Favourite music video analysis

I began doing a music video analysis on Katy Perry's song 'California Gurls' as it is one of my favourites due to it being quite catchy and interesting to listen to and watch.This music video demonstrates the pop genre really clearly due to the style being very girly as it is based around sweets and candy and the use of colours being bright and bold. The major colour shown throughout the video is pink amplifying the pop genre clearly.

There is a clear relationship between the visuals and lyrics throughout this music video. The lyrics start of with ''Greetings loved ones. Let's take a journey'' which links really well with the visuals of Snoop Dog welcoming the audience and showing them the board game which leads to the candy world.

                            

For example when she says ''California girls, we're unforgettable. Daisy Dukes bikinis on top.'' The lyrics relate to the visuals of what the girls are dressed in illustrating the imaginary world being ideal not only for girls but men as there they get to see their ideal woman.

The music being upbeat and catchy makes it a conventional pop song. The visuals relate to the music as there are scenes of Katy dancing and moving along with the beat in the illusionary candy world.

                                  

The video being of her surrounded by chocolates and candy portrays a sense of surrealism due to Katy Perry being in an imaginary candy world. She sings ''You'll be falling in love'' which relates to the visuals as everyone would love to be in this imaginary candy world.

The pace of editing is quick to attract the viewers and keep them interacted with various shots. The demands from the record company is illustrated clearly as there are different angles of shots of Katy Perry and the major being Close-ups. This therefore relates back to the pop genre as having close-ups of the artist is one of the pop genre conventions. Due to the artists popularity, close-ups are extremely important in the pop genre. The record company choose to use more close-ups so that a wide range of audience is attracted as well as target audience. The target audience, being you teen girls, would be immediately attracted due to the whole candy girly theme. Although the men would be attracted through a sexual perspective of Katy Perry being seductive as there is a vouyeristic image portrayed of her. This therefore means that both genders would be attracted.

The camera work shows a range of establishing shots such as long shots and wide shots. There are shots where the camera has captured Katy Perry's legs, body and face showing her beauty and sexiness appealing to the male audience. This references to Goodwin's theory of notion of looking as Katy Perry is constantly being portrayed in a vouyeristic way. Camera shots that have been captured of some of the props such as as her shoes, outfit and make-up is to appeal to the female audience. 
 
There is an intertextual reference of the movies 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' due to the narrative and concept being around a world of candy and chocolate. The narrative is clear, in this music video, of it being based around a candy themed board game in which Katy Perry dreams of being in as one of the game pieces. Mens sexual desire is followed strongly due to the dances and actions performed. For example when Katy Perry squirts cream, that are attached to her bra.

  
 

The mise-en-scene of costumes, throughout the music video, has changed keeping the viewers engaged and interested with both male and female genders. There is one point of the video where she has a brownie outfit on reflecting upon the young teens. The artist is also dressed in ''Daisy dukes'' with ''bikini's on top'' which attracts the young adults and men. In some scenes Perry's costumes are quite revealing and sexy to seduce the men; slight nudity involved to increase the sexiness. The high key lighting has used all the way through the video to amplify the wonderful happy atmosphere illustrating the pop genre.

Overall, throughout this music video, the pop genre has been portrayed predominately well. The music video has attracted a range of gender and aged people. The video has worked considerably well due to the visuals constantly linking to the music and lyrics and the frequent reference of notion of looking being vouyeristic in this case.

Goodwin's analysis of LadyGaga's Pokerface music video

This music video in a slight way does follow Goodwin's theory of music video. In the video the genre of Pop is shown clearly as it is depicted though the dance routine. Majority of the music video is of dance moves which creates the feel of the dance vibe in Pop. The connection between the lyrics and visuals is quite good in the way that the song is about not being able to understand Lady Gaga and you don't know what she will do next. This is shown through the visuals as you can't judge or guess on what her next move will be in the video. For example when she says "can't read my poker face" she is laying behind a man who has dark lighting while she has light lighting. This implies that she is hiding lots of things or something by acting innocent and bright like a star.

The tone and beat of the music works well with the visuals as the dance moves go in sync with the beat. The seductive notions in music are portrayed in the video. For example by the clothing she is wearing which is a dress full of mirrors that stands out in video. The style of her clothes throughout this music video fits well with the Pop genre as its funky and stands out.

Throughout the video there is a range of close-up to Lady Gaga showing her emotions or her singing. In many scenes she is the main focus even when there are other people surrounding her the camera focuses on her while she sings. This gives me an idea of that Lady Gaga is the centre of attention and that this song is about her and focused only on her; she is important.

She shows different ways in referencing to the word 'poker' by making a circle out of her hand and looking through it or by wearing mirrored masks and outfits.

                

Her body, throughout the video, is being portrayed voyeurestically by making sexual and seductive movements to attract males as well as females to watch and listen to her Poker Face video. For example when she is in a room sitting with people she does sexual references when dancing. From doing this she attracts her young teen girls to listen to her song as well as the men to watch the video. Her tight fitted clothes also contribute to her seductive look.

There are a few intertexuality references used in her music video. To start off with she advertises BWIN which is a poker company; this interlinks with her title 'Poker Face'. There is also a part in the song in which she uses Beats headphones by Dre this relates to her as the headphones are to do with music. By doing these intertextual references she is advertising to people and encouraging them to buy them as she plays or uses them.

I decided to do an analysis on Lady Gaga's music video "Poker Face" as i feel that it will be useful to me when thinking about creating my music video as i want to go into the genre of Pop which is the one she is in. As Lady Gaga is from a Pop genre i feel that researching into her music video and style will be useful and also because i am interested in the idea of a female Pop. This music video of hers does follow the theory of Goodwin however not to the extent but there are elements that follow each point.

Goodwin's analysis Jay-Z 99 problems music video

17/09/14 

This music video demonstrates the genre of Rap/Hiphop. This is shown through mise-en-scene as the costumes in the video shows the key iconography. For example are hats, baggy jeans, baggy jackets, hoody's and balaclavas. Props have also contributed for example the bling jewellery and the music system. There is a recurring use of 'diamond' throughout the video amplifies the connotation of Jay-Z being 'the diamond in the rough'.

The video shows the notion of looking through a slight voyeurism as there are a few short shots of women in their bikini's being sexy. There is derogatory treatment of women as they are being compared to a dog as the editing of the shots has been done in a graphic match; a shot of the women being shown then cut to a shot of the dogs. At this cut the term of 'Bitches' is being said in the lyrics, this then creates the link between the visuals and lyrics as the term bitches is indicating to the women and the dogs. There maybe very few shots of women however the voyeuristic treatment of women is still shown.

                                  

The genre through the visuals is clearly shown as a gangster lifestyle and typical 'thug-life' as the setting shows graffiti's on the walls, being in Brooklyn(run down area), basketball courts and police in the surroundings bringing the impression of criminals around. There are also camera shots of people doing hip-hop dancing which contributes to the idea of hip-hop. A shot of the suitcase full of money in the boot of the car creates that tension towards the audience of whats going to happen as the police has caught him out.

This music video is very realistic in the way of representation of Jay-Z's life; dealing with drugs. Through this music video is Jay-Z's life through narrative. The black and white editing effect creates the mood of aggressiveness due to the dullness of everything seeming darker, run down and gritty; this in a way reflects upon poverty. The tone of the music also brings out the aggressiveness and the genre of rap. The videos very 'ghetto style' referencing old NewYork films and opposing usual romantic connotations.

The low angle shots of Jay-Z amplifies the idea of him being the boss along with the close-ups of mostly being him implying that the narrative is about him. However the visuals later show the inferior side of Jay-Z as he is shown against his weakness which is the police, this is illustrated through a high angle shot of him. The handheld cinematography brings out the realistic side of this music video. The editing being short cuts and fast pace builds up that tension.

Throughout the video there are multiple relations between the lyrics and the visuals. For example when Jay-Z says ''Paparazi with there cameras snapping them'' the visuals shows criminals being taken photos in the prison. Each verse has a different story in which the visuals reference each narrative.

Throughout this music video the shots are edited in a very high pace which makes the whole music video fast pace and snappy. The way the shots have been edited to create tension and give the realistic feel by reflecting on the narrative.

                               

As the song fades there is a relationship between the rhythm of the music and the visuals as they both go in sync. There is in intertextual reference of Rick Ruban and rounder of Def Jan. The video amplifies the message of the song clearly; he has got lots of problems but a 'bitch' aint one; it really connotes the young black guy and his narrative. There is also another intertextual reference shown in a scene where the camera is showing Jay-Z view on him looking into his mirror.

Overall this music video clearly follows Goodwin's theory of music video as it consists of variety of demonstrations in which reflect upon the genre of Rap/Hip-hop clearly. The relationship between the lyrics and visuals and music and visuals is also done to the extreme. The notion of looking has been contributed as well as the intertextual reference.

Goodwin's analysis of Katy Perry's Last Friday Night music video

This music video demonstrates the genre of Pop very well due to the whole teenage feel that is shown  ;the narrative being about a teenage party. The beat of the song from the beginning straight away gives you the implication that this is a Pop song. The style in which the video is filmed contributes to the genre; bright, colourful and starts off like a chick flick movie.

The relationship between the lyrics and visuals, in this music video, is very strong as whatever she says in her lyrics reflects on the visuals. For example towards the beginning of the song she says "there's a stranger in my bed" here it shows someone laying in bed next to her. As this line gets sung the camera moves to the side slightly showing the "stranger" in her bed. This helps in amplifying the lyrics so that the audience have a clear understanding on what the narrative is about and what she is saying.

           

The relationship between the lyrics and visuals get stronger as she sings and shows whatever she is singing in her narrative. She starts then singing about a party on friday and the video shows parts of the party, people dancing and singing while she sings about it. She then starts talking about her pictures being exposed online and at this point the camera cuts to her laptop showing the photos being online. 

                 

When the music video starts viewing the party and Katy starts singing. Here the audience, being young teenagers, can relate to the song as well as the video as this is what most teenage girls go through at a party.

The relationship between the music and the visuals is quite strong, i think, because the beat of the music flows in sync well with the visuals. This is as the start of the video the beat is quite low pitch but as the party gets started the song gets started the beat plays loudly and more with force. The songs quite fast pace and quick which goes well with the video as the cuts for each shot are pretty quick too. As the song gets to the chorus the beat gets higher along with the shots being short takes. As the song gets to the verse the beat goes slightly down along with the shots being slightly longer. The music video shows the professional typical pop style well by the music and visuals working along with each other.

The style and iconography really does reflect the whole idea of a Pop genre. Throughout this music video there are a lot of block bright colours used, commonly yellow and pick, to appeal to the young teen girls. Pink and yellow are the two main type of colours that connotate Pop and give the idea of parties being fun and give the retro feel as this music video is based around the late 80's. The Pop feel is also created at the parts where everyone is shown dancing at the parties.

                          

There are quite a few close-up shots shown of Katy when she is singing the lyrics or when she is showing her emotions. For example showing her happiness and freedom out of her comfort zone as she starts dancing at the party and smiling. In some of her shots she expresses her self in a flamboyant way to attract males to watch her videos.

                  

I feel that this music video, in a way, can be seen as voyeurism because the video shows the whole night of the party and the day after. This allows her fans to experience the party she went to with her as well as her feeling the next day.

The intertexuality of this music video is that it is like a chick flick film and similar to Mean Girls. The idea of having a house party and turning a nobody into a somebody is just like the concept of Mean Girls. Also the cinematography of filming Katy walking down the stairs reflects exactly to how Lindsey Lohan did when ready for the party at Mean Girls. 

The music video also starred two Glee stars. Glee is a show that many teenagers watch and this is why the stars were part of this music video so that Glee fans are attracted to watch and listen to this music video.

Debbie Gibson starred as Katy's mother. She is a successful musician and actress who was successful around the 80's and 90's. By starring Gibson it makes the music video authentic and attractive to old Debbie Gibson fans to watch and listen.

The representation of the popular teens and nerdy teens were clearly seen. The representation of the jock character in this video is shown in a stereotypical way of being a show-off and cool as his wearing his baseball jacket and lifts up his shirt to show the girls his six pack. He is represented as a typical jock as when katy is geeky he ignores her and goes after the pretty hot girls but then when she gets a makeover he starts talking to her. However the jock character then gets represented in an atypical way as the nerdy guy punches him; usually the jock type guys are suppose to be the strong ones.

The nerd character carried out by Katy is typical as her appearance is of a typical geek; having braces and glasses with neat clothes. She also plays suduko at the start implying she is a nerd. She then gets a makeover like a typical chick flick film.

Overall i feel that Goodwins theory of music video has been followed perfectly in this music video as it has covered most of the points he stated. I decided to research into this music video because the genre i am thinking of going into is Pop and I'm looking into creating an artist that does songs around Pop/Indie genre. I chose to look at Katy Perry as i like her unique style she has of quirkiness and fun style Pop artist.