Analysis of music videos

Lady gaga- Poker Face

From watching this video lady gaga is promoting a unique wacky image, she is making a statement. Throughout the video she has six different outfits, all of which are individual to her. She also wears statement jewellery, including a jewel on her face. This video is very much about image rather than music. The camerawork used in the video has lots of close ups on lady gaga, which tells the audience that she very much wants to be the focus of attention in her music video and the close ups help to give her own star iconography. A lot of zoom in is used in the video which also makes us focus on lady gaga. Panning is used to follow lady gaga whenever she moves throughout the video. High key lighting is used so that she is always visible to the viewer. In some parts of the video split screen is used and mirrors too, to show more than one of lady gaga, showing that the focus is totally on her. The men dancing in her dance routine are solely there for effect, as they are dressed in dark plain clothes to help them blend into the background, whilst lady gaga is wearing a bright blue outfit and is in the centre of the dance routine. Visual effects are used throughout the video, at the beginning lightning is seen in the clouds, the lightning strikes in time to the music which gives a good effect, also the water that lady gaga throws is put into slow motion to fit in time with the music also. The music video does not tell a narrative however in some parts of the video the words which lady gaga are singing illustrates the lyrics being sung, for example when she is sitting at the table playing poker the lyrics are not actually about playing poker and keeping a poker face. They are more about being able to keep a poker face to hide emotions and feelings between a man and a woman. This video fits Andrew Goodwin’s theory for all the reasons I have given above. This music video also fits the theory of Sigmund Freud “that erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object, (preferably when the object is unaware of being watched)”. This is because lady gaga is not wearing much in all of her outfits she has throughout the video and she has been given an airbrushed look and is wearing lots of makeup.

Christina Aguilera –Beautiful

From watching this video by Christina Aguilera it portrays completely different messages to lady gaga’s video that I previously watched. This video gives the audience the feeling that Christina Aguilera is making this video to express her feelings, more than promoting her image, as there are other people shown in her video when she is not, and overall she probably appears in only half the video. This is also shown by the costume which she is wearing, they are simple, black and loose fitting. She is wearing makeup, but it is not extravagant it is natural looking. High angle shots and long shots are used when she is singing; this could mean that she wants viewers to concentrate more on the words of the song than on her in the video. However some close ups are shown of her face; this is to show her emotion about what she is singing. Low or natural lighting is used throughout most of the video, which gives the video a less showy and more casual look. The music is always in time to what we are seeing in the video, when the symbol is hit in the song, a mirror is smashed in the video, this gives a good effect, also when the music gets louder Christina Aguilera also sings louder which makes her voice sound powerful. The video shows different situations in which people may be discriminated against, for example sexuality, weight disorders and race but she is singing that everybody is beautiful however they are or choose to be. By the end of the video all the people are smiling, which shows that they are proud of what they are. The video does tell a narrative, it begins with showing a dead flower, which represents the people shown in the video, they are represented like this because they are worried about what people think of them, but by the end of the video the flower has bloomed which shows that they are happy with who they are and should not listen to what other people think of them. This video fits the theory of Steve Archer’s “need for a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance”, also “the video cuts between narrative and performance of the song by the artist to show ‘real connection’ with the music”.