Analysis of Lady Gaga- Love Game

Genre Characteristics:

Dance pop-

Lots of dancers through out video, Lady Gaga dancing herself.

Gaga wears unique clothing, attracts attention to herself and individuality.
A lot of use of bright lights normally on Gaga, camera flashes- pictures being taken of her all the time.
Lyrics and visuals:
When the lyrics say "involves some heavy touching yeah" there are a few dancers who are touching Gaga.
Music and visuals:
The dancing in the video matches the beat of the music.
The demands of the Record Label:
There are a lot of close ups of Gaga, Love Game only being her third single she needed to be recognized as an artist. The close ups let her gain achievement.
The video focuses on both the concept and the performance in the video.
Notion of looking:
Lady Gaga does not wear many clothes in the video this attracts male gaze. In the video, the everyone around he ris constantly looking at her, showing she is seen as attractive.
At 0.50, there is a shot of her body in a leotard.
Intertextual References:
The video begins like a film, where the record label is seen on screen. The video consists of a lot of promotion. For example, near the beggining one of the men have "FAME" shaved into his hair. This is promotiong Lady Gaga's album 'Fame'. She also promotes the earphones she has in as there is a close up of her wearing them and then another shot of her stroking them whilst she has them in.

Analysis of Katy Perry-Last Friday Night

1. Genre characteristics

The genre of this music video is pop. The pop genre is normally aimed at a youth market, which is true for this video as it consists of a American-teen house party. Almost all the people in the video are teenagers (except Katy's mum and dad and uncle.) The video centres on young people partying and having fun. The colour theme in the video also follows the conventions of a pop genre video, as the colours used are bright and happy colours. Stereotyping is also used, to emphasize the different roles of characters, for example the 'Jock' squeezes Katy's bum, and the 'nerds' have braces and glasses. The video is made to look like a movie as, credits are used to introduce and end the video.

The costumes worn in the video are also typical for a video of a pop genre and of the stereotypical character. For example, the 'jock' is wearing a typical 'cool' jacket and baggy jeans, whilst the 'nerd' is wearing a shirt, trousers and suspenders. Katy's costume after being transformed, consists of a bright green, short skirt and a bright pink top that shows her belly. The video also, includes the element of 'fantasy' when the 'nerd' is fantasising about being him being a hero and Katy being his princess.

2. Lyrics and Visuals

The lyrics start with "There's a stranger in my bed" as Katy is singing this, she looks at the man laying next to her. She later sings "is this a hickey or a bruise" Whilst showing the mark on her neck. As she says "pictures up last night" voyeurism is used, as we see what Katy is seeing as she looks at the pictures on her laptop.

3. Musics and Visuals

Throughout the first verse of the song Katy is in her bedroom singing on her bed, but as the first chorus starts the tempo rises, and visuals of people dancing are shown. Katy sings "Do it all again" in a slow, dreamy way. During this time there is an image of the 'nerd' dreaming about Katy. As the second chorus comes in; the tempo increases as does the video whilst Katy is transforming from a 'nerd' to someone 'cool'. There is an instrumental in the song played by a saxophone. Katy's 'uncle' is shown playing the saxophone in the video.

4. Demands of the record label

There are a lot of close ups of Katy as both a geek and cool. Katy is already thought to be a 'sexy' artist, and all though the video presents her as a geek, she still looks the 'hot' playing the part. This would appeal to both females and males; as men would be drawn in by her looks, while women would aspire to be like her in the sense that she can pull any look off. A close up of her is shown as the lyrics say "theres a pounding in my head", during this she is holding her head, showing she is in a lot of pain causing the viewers to feel sympathy towards her. The video is very performance and concept based.

5. Notion of looking

In the video, the audience is shown pictures from the night before; on Katy's laptop. This gives the audience an insight of the events that occurred the previous night. We see what the 'nerd' is day dreaming about. this is also a reference to the notion of looking, as we are seeing inside his mind at is private thoughts.

Voyeurism is also used in the video, when the 'jock' shows his six pack, as this would appeal to the female audience. Also, as Katy is climbing up the stairs, her bum and legs are the main image of the shot and as she is climbing down the stairs we see her legs first. This could connote her transition as we see the back of her in the first shot and the front after her transformation.

6. Intertextual references

The video is made to look like a movie, consisting of opening and closing credits. At the beginning of the video, a boy on a bike is shown delivering newspapers while the movie like credits are shown, to typical movie like music. All this shows intertextual references to a typical American-teen film opening.

The video features many faces, who would be familiar to the teenage audience. Kevin McHale and Darren Criss, are cast members from 'Glee'; a popular American-teen show. Rebecca Black would also, be very familiar to teenagers, because of her recent song 'Friday'; which was highly criticized, but heard and viewed by the majority of teenagers. Also, 'TGIF' was a trait of Rebecca Black's song, which was used by Katy Perry in this song, which would make it an intertextual reference to Rebecca Black's song.

Coffee and Tv- Blur analysis

1. Genre characteristics

The genre of the music video is Brit-pop. The setting of the video is in an suburban area. You can see this when there is a shot of the milk carton standing on a red post box. You can see that the milk carton has come from a middle class family form a suburban area, which follows the typical conventions of a brit pop video.

2. Lyrics and visuals

When the lyrics say "take me away from this big bad world", the milk carton is about to be run over by the motorbike, which then stops and gives the carton a lift into town.

3. Music and visuals

At the start of the video the beat of the song does relate to the mood of the family. The music is very slow and mellow, which goes with the slow paced visuals. As the carton is going through a dark and creepy alley, the song itself turns very dark. The beat turns happy when the carton goes to heaven.

4. Demands of the record label

The shots of the band are minimal. They are only seen after the carton has found the boy for a short period of time. This is because the band are already well established artists and do not need to be promoted by their music video.

5. Notion of looking

We see a picture of the missing boy on the milk carton and a picture of him in a frame before we see him in person. Also, when the carton finds the boy, we see what the carton sees through the window.

6. Intertextual references

During the scene in the dark alley the carton sees a shiny green object amongst the rubbish. This could be a reference to a science-fiction film.

99 problems- Jay Z analysis.

1. Genre characterisics

The costumes in the video follow the rules of a hip-hop genred music video, as they all had he gangsta "street" look. They are also seen getting in trouble with the police, a typical which is also a typical aspect of a hip hop music video. Involvment in criminal activity is also showed when you see the scene of dog fighting in an underground club, which also connotes violence.

There is a street dance scene, where you see people street dancing on the streets, which is a very conventional. The video is set in urban Brooklyn, New York, in a run down neighbourhood.

there a minimal shots of sexualised women wearing gold bikinis. the women do not look very classy but like prostitutes. There are not as many shots of them as you would expect to see in a music video of this genre, however this could be because of the rundown area they are from. The video is also lacking representaions of wealth; the cars shown in the video are normal, the clothing worn is scruffy and the images of bling are also minimal. It seems like Jay Z is looking at it but has not yet attained it.

There is a jail scene in the video, where all the inmates are black. A white man, who is not in jail, in a suit is shown, and also a white policeman. This is a stereotypical representation of race as it shows black people as jail birds and white people as the people of authority.

The shooting at the end also relates to the genre as it reflects the image of "gangsta cool".

2. Lyrics and visual

The song is about being a gangsta and having the lifestyle of one, which is illustrated through the video's images.

The lyrics and visuals have a synchronal relationship through out the song. Images in the video, sometimes generally and sometimes more specifically, reflect the image. For example, when the lyric 'God' is said there is an image of a crucifix and when the word 'bitch' is said either an image of women or an image of the dogs fighting is shown. When the word 'paparazzi' is said you see flashes, however they are the camera flashes of the criminals getting their picures taken. Also, when the lyrics 'from the hood' are said, Jay Z pulls is hood down.

The story about getting pulled over by police is literally illustrated through the visuals, which is a very narrative style.

The visuals show some of the 99 problems, the pinnacle being him getting shot.

3. Music and visuals

The camera movements are jerky and constant which matches the rise and fall of the beat. Also, the cuts are in sinc with the bass, especially at the beginning.

There are lots of cuts and many different images which makes it hard to see everything on the first viewing. This is similar to the song, which is dense with themes, imagery and narratives.

4. Demands of the record label

There are lots of low angle and close up shots of Jay Z. This makes him appear powerful, which is a desirable image to promote within the hip hop industry. There are fewer shots of Jay Z than you would expect. This could be either because he is being modest os that he is the 'top dog' on the streets. It also reflects the fact that he is a well established artist and doesnt need his face all over the video.

5. Notions of looking/voyeuristic

There is a shot of him looking at police in the wing mirror, which could show that he is involved in criminal activity and is getting suspicious.

Various shots of women which are very sexualised are also shown, which is a common feature of hip hop videos. An example of this is when there is a shot of a womans bare legs, wearing knee high leather boots, walking is shown. This shot could be connoting prostitution.

There are shots where we are looking through bars in to the prison. This could be hinting that, the criminal activities he is involved in could make him end up there.

Also, a X-ray shot through the boot of his car is shown, which shows us there is an illegal dog in a cage. This makes the audience think they are more involved with th video, as it lets them in on the secret.

6. Intertextual reference

Rick Rubin is shown in the video. He is a music producer, who helped Jay Z produce the video. The shot of him getting shot at the end is in slow motion which has references to action films. Also, it is shot in black and white which refers to other gangsta films.