Monday 16 September 2013

CJ - Music Video Deconstruction

Applause (Lady Gaga, 2013)


Institution and Audience:
  • The artist is a highly popular mainstream audience therefore the video will be consumed widely on television and online, using both music channels and websites such as Youtube, Sound cloud, iTunes etc.
  • The video has 55 million views on Youtube, showing the extreme interest in the song and artist.
  • The internet offers audiences the chance to listen to high quality music for free, and television channels constantly play the top 40 charts, allowing the video to be viewed by millions of people across the world.
  • The record label would play a big role in the creation of the promotional text, however with the artist being known for her individuality and weird ways, most of the directing would be done by the artist herself.

Earthquake (DJ Fresh, 2013)


Genre and Narrative:
  • Mainstream music videos have certain conventions in which are shown in the music video including performance, choreography and the relationship between lyrics and visuals.
  • The video is both illustrative and amplifying with the video posing the carnage of an earthquake and the action being amplified in order to anchor the lyrics.
  • The costumes used in mainstream videos are often bright, colourful and extraordinary, this too is shown in the 'Earthquake' video with characters dressed as super heroes.
  • Voyeurism is a big part in the video, with the girls being shot as an object for male consumption (fetishistic).
  • The video has a very strong intertextual reference with the film it was created for (Kick Ass 2). This is mainly done through costumes and location.
  • The video is simply commercial and used for promotion purposes to gain interest in the film it was made for.
  • The video is Narrative based following the concept of the film in which it was designed around.

Talk dirty to me (Jason Derulo, 2013)


Media Language:

  • The message within the video is that the artist is extremely popular with girls and that they cant help themselves when they're around him.
  • The artist is constructing the idea that he is extraordinary and that people look up to him, especially girls.
  • Visuals show the artist being corresed by girls, making him seem important and a girl magnet. He is also shown with his 'boys' making him seem cool and standing out in the crowd (he isnt like every other boy).
  • Camera close-ups are used to frame the artist in a way in which makes him seem ultra-goodlooking.
  • The video shows a discourse in usual music video conventions. Rather than all the girls being shown as an image for male consumtion, the male artist himself is being made an object for female benefit.
  • Special effects are used to make the video more exciting and appealing.
  • Many modern culture references are shown with the boys dressing up cool and the girls chasing after them.
Representation:
  • The artist is represented as an iconic figure throughout the video, putting him in the limelight. This is done through camera methods such as close-ups, low camera angles (give him a higher status). The choreography shown also shows him standing out in the crowd.
  • The process of representing the artist as a star, helps to sell the product and gain interest of the audience, especially female audiences.
  • The boys in the video are shown to be 'cool' and 'attractive'. The girls are also shown to be 'sexy' however are constructed to be an object for male pleasure.
  • The video poses a strong ideological discourse when representing girls in a way in which they are just there for male pleasure and are a sexual object. Both the visuals and the lyrics are used to represent this. The video contains mainly black individuals which may be deemed unusual due to current ideologies stating that all races must be shown in order to show equality. 
  • Although sexism is frowned upon these days, men still see woman as a sexual object and therefore institutions will use this ideology as a way of using girls as commodities. Many mainstream music videos involve the use of girls as a way of selling the product and 'Talk dirty to me' is no exception. The use of girls is to extend the target audience, with the artist being highly popular with female audiences, therefore institutions will try and change music videos in order to increase interest and revenue.

2 comments:

  1. Connor, this is a good start to the analysis and you have selected appropriate videos to analyse. You will need to improve on your use of media language and development of ideas in order to obtain a grade for this piece of work. I will go through it with you in class.

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  2. The way you have depicted the representation in 'Talk Dirty To Me' of him standing out in a crowd is something we could think of when we introduce the upper class character in our music video

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