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Analysis of Pop Videos by Artists Similar to our Artist

Analysis of Pop Videos by Artists Similar to our Artist

Ariana Grande - Baby I

In this music video Ariana Grande is portrayed as a fun loving party girl, however there is also a portrayal of innocence about her character as she is wearing bright, vibrant summery clothes and nothing too revealing. The Music video is set in the streets, a party and rooftops this makes her seem relatable to the audience and like a normal girl. Another aspect of her seeming relatable to the audience is when she is on a bus. The most common shot in this music video and pop music videos in general is a close up and long shot. The close up is used to establish the artist to the audience and creates a connection. It is also used to focus on the facial expressions and the singing. The long shots are used to establish the scene and setting and in some occasions it is used to show a dance routine. According to Goodwin's theory this music video would be mainly performance and concept based, it has no reference to a narrative however. This is un-generic for the pop genre as they usually follow a narrative based upon love or a break-up.

This long-shot of her sitting on a car suggests her rebellious nature however it is contrasted throughout the video by her sense of innocence. The long shot additionally identifies the scene and the feel of the video. Simply just from this shot it is obvious and clear to tell that this is going to be an uplifting song rather than a depressing breakup song. The miss-en-scene in this shot suggests that she is very fashionable and is constantly up to date with the trends.

This close-up of Ariana Grande lying down singing towards the camera is used to show her relaxed, chilled out nature. It can also demonstrate the tone of her singing and the expressions she needs to use to hit the notes. It could be argued that her innocence is additionally portrayed through this close-up as you can only see her face, which does not suggest any sexual connotations, and the fact that she is lying down makes her seem almost childish.

Another use of the long-shot is to show the performers. It establishes the performance of the male and female dancers. Ariana Grande is in the centre of the shot which suggests she is of the most importance in the shot, another reason why she might be suggested as the most important as she is also the only one sitting down on her side. The long-shot is effectively used in this shot as it clearly shows everyone in the shot and establishes them as a group.

The long-shot used in this shot simply addresses the audience with the scene and set. In the bottom right hand corner of the shot we see a bus named 'Baby I' which is also the name of the song. This reminds the audience that this is not real life but just a music video.

In this shot the use of a mid-shot suggests to the audience that Ariana Grande has a good relationship with the dancers as she is seen dancing and smiling with the dancers. This additionally suggests and reiterates the point that she is a performer and not just a singer. The shot which tracks down her whole body shows she is a good dancer and a friendly person as we are able to see good body language and good dancing through the use of a tracking mid shot.

This long-shot additionally shows her as a performer rather than just an artist. It is also used to introduce the dancers to the audience. The long shot is used mainly to identify the dancers and the dance routine. The use of the long shot displaying the dancers as part of the group is conventional to the pop music video genre and therefore is pleasing for the audience as they are used to seeing it.

Ariana's cheeky and childish attitude is portrayed through the use of a close-up in this shot. Her target audience is young females therefore this close-up showing her childish attitude is perfect in displaying her as relatable to her childish audience.

In this long shot we see Ariana Grande dancing and showing off her body in a way that some could argue being provocative. She is also placed in the centre of the shot which suggests she is the centre of attention. The mise en scene used in this shot also portrays her fashion sense and the uplifting atmosphere the song has.

In this mid shot of her, Ariana is portrayed as a fun loving part girl. The shot is very crowded yet you still get a distinctive view of her at the foreground of the shot. This suggests to the audience that she is the centre of attention and that she is the artist in the song.

This close up of Ariana makes us focus on the vocals and the range of her voice rather than all the other performance based elements of the video.

Taylor Swift - 22

Taylor Swift's music video for '22' is generic to the pop music video genre as it contains the two main elements of a pop music video, which are performance and narrative based concepts. Similarly to the music video for Arian Grande's 'Baby I' Taylor Swift is shown to be a fun loving, happy, joyful girl. The mise en scene used in the music video contains scenes set at the beach, by a pool and inside a well decorated house. This suggests that the music video contains a very summery vibe and portrays Taylor Swift as a sophisticated yet fun loving girl. For example, Taylor is seen as sophisticated in the scenes where she is on the beach looking out into the distance, whereas she is portrayed as fun-loving and innocent in the scenes where Taylor Swift is jumping on a trampoline or playing with her friends. The audience can also relate to Taylor Swift in this music video as she is hanging around with a bunch of girls her age, but who look like normal, average people. Later on in the music video we see Taylor Swift getting ready, in the shots used there is a contrast between her being sophisticated and her being child-like. Her sophisticated attitude is shown by her elegant dress and how she puts her makeup on however her child-like attitude is portrayed by the cat ears she is wearing.

This long shot shows Taylor Swift as the centre of attention as she is the only on in the shot. The plain white background also suggests that she stands out from everyone. This jus shows that mise en scene is just as effective in portraying symbolism or meanings.

We again have another long shot however this time it is of Taylor by a swimming pool with a bunch of friends. This shot establishes Taylor as not only the centre of attention (as her friends are looking at her and copying her movements) it also suggests she is a fun-loving, popular girl.

This close up of Taylor Swift is used so we can focus on the music and her voice. Goodwin's analysis of music videos states that a convention of music videos is that the visuals usually reflect the music. In this case he is correct as the visuals are of her singing and the music is the song being played.

Taylor Swift's fun and childlike attitude is portrayed in this medium shot of her. The mise en scene includes the use of props such as pom-poms and the over-sized megaphone. These goofy objects make her seem very likeable and fun to watch.

The use of an extra-long-shot in this scene establishes the scene very well, similarly to the shot shown below. In the foreground we can see Taylor Swift and her friends, who look like they are running and smiling. This shot could be seen as very peaceful, as the scenery is beautiful and calming. Towards the top of the shot we can see a house and blue skies. 

Again an extra-long-shot is used again to establish the scene. This shot is very effective as the sun is just floating above the sea in the background whilst Taylor and her friends are running and enjoying themselves in the foreground, it is aesthetically very appealing. It is probably used for people to relate or reminisce of happy times.

Correspondingly to the two shots shown above this extra-long-shot is used to not only establish the scene but this time to suggest that Taylor Swift is just an ordinary girl. Her and her friends are scattered around the shot rather orderly, however if you didn't know who Taylor Swift was it would be hard to pick her out. The demands of the record label most probably suggested this as it would make Taylor more relatable to the audience. Nevertheless there is still a suggestion that she is slightly more important than the others as she is placed in the centre of the shot.

In this mid-shot which is looking up at Taylor we see her once more having fun with her friends, which makes her seem more similar to her audience. She is also seen as very up-to-date and fashionable as she is wearing shot blue denim shorts, a flowery, elegant shirt, sunglasses and a yellow bandanna. 

This music video contains mainly the generic conventions of a pop music video, which are performance and narrative element. Although there is less of a narrative element then performance element in this music video there is still a vague narrative. However the performance element is a very strong element of this music video. In this long shot we see Taylor dancing and singing by a swimming pool. It portrays a very summery vibe. 

In this long shot we see Taylor Swift jumping and playing on a trampoline with her friends. This reinforces her playful and childlike aspects. It additionally suggests she is a fun girl who doesn't take everything too seriously. 

This close up of Taylor Swift getting ready in the mirror shows a much more sophisticated side to her character. We see her in an elegant, classy dress with her hair perfectly combed. It also again gives us a chance to focus on her vocals again as she is singing into the mirror. However we are still able to see this funny, child-like aspect other character as she is wearing cat ears, which suggest innocence.

This close-up of Taylor Swift makes her look very sweet and cute. As she is smiling at the camera we get the feeling that she is a sweet and nice girl. The mise en scene also backs up this sense of sweetness about her character as the fairy lights are very delicate, possibly used to represent her.

We have another close up of Taylor, this time we see she is walking somewhere accompanied by two other girls. The fact that Taylor is in the foreground and middle of the shot whilst the two other girls and in the background and following her it suggests that Taylor is the centre of attention. She is looking at the camera which creates a connection between the audience and the artist. 

In this final shot of Taylor we see her dancing and smiling at the camera. This advocates the idea that she is a party-loving girl. This is a similar shot used by Ariana Grande in her music video for Baby I. This suggests that the demands of the record label is to depict the artist as someone who portrays innocence yet still loves to party.  

Album Name Ideas

In todays lesson, 18th October, we analysed a variety of of album covers and names and came to the conclusion that all the artist from our genre used one word for their album. We believe the reason behind this is because it is a powerful stand alone word which portrays the artists passion and determination.

Ideas:
Passion
HALO
Ready or Not

We decided on Ready or Not as we believed it suited the artist better than the other album names. We felt the other album names were more something you would expect from either a Beyonce or Rhianna, artists who are in the other direction from which we are trying to portray her as.

Essay Question Analysis

You will have very little time in exams to discuss the idea of how useful you found using Andrew Goodwin;s theoretical framework of analysis of music videos. Instead get to the point as to your results having analysed at least 3 music videos of the same genre.

Rather than using the word storyline, try where possible to use specialist media terminology like narrative.

In preparation for the exam, you will need to be able to quote at least 5 specific finding related to artist webpages and how this impacted on your planning.

At key points in your response try to incorporate the terms used, developed or challenged.

The examiner marking this question will not have seen your blog and therefore will be naive as to the full extent of any audience research carried out. The findings you have discussed so far suggests the scope of your research was limited to expectations and performance vs narrative.

Once your plans are complete, you should be in a position to detail specific plans - i.e. moments taken from the script of storyboard.

How and to what extent have the outcomes of your research findings influenced on your initial creative thoughts and specific planning decisions?

Seeing as our music video is in the pop music genre a lot of our research was based around and focussing on pop music videos and the analysis of them. Whilst analysing I would refer to Goodwin's theory to deepen my understanding of what is expected of different genres of music videos. This also allowed to to focus on the characteristics and generic conventions of each music video genre. His technique included the analysis of performance, concept and narrative based music videos.

The outcomes of our research findings have impacted our initial creative thoughts and specific planning decision massively. This is shown through the references to music videos such as; Taylor Swifts 'You Belong With Me,' Katy Perry's 'The One That Got Away' and Ariana Grande's 'Baby I.' These are all music videos which we researched in order to achieve a wider understanding and to develop our analysing skills of the pop music video genre. We have decided to incorporate a lot of the conventions and characteristics found in theses music videos which fall under the pop music video genre. Seeing as our music video is a pop music video it would be best if we developed and used some of these characteristics and interpreted them in our won way. This therefore shows that the research findings and the outcome of these contributed towards the development of our final product.

Another aspect of my research included the research of album covers and their digipak, this was important as we are going to create our own digipak therefore we need to research and look into the alnum covers for the pop genre. After doing a lot of research of album covers such as; Rita Ora's 'ORA,' Rhianna's 'LOUD' and Jessie J's 'Alive' I can conclude that a generic convention in the pop music industry, particularly for females is that their album covers are generally close-ups of their face. This also relates to Goodwin's analysis of music videos as he states music videos in each genre have specific genre characteristics, in the case of the pop genre the characteristic is to have a close up of the artists face on the album cover. This is most probably due to another reason stated by Goodwin that the demands of the record label will be to advertise the artist as much as possible and there is no better way of advertising the artist and their look (which plays a big part in the artists career in this era.) then by placing a close-up of their face on their album. Another characteristic of the pop genre album covers is voyeuristic treatment of the female body, which is also stated by Goodwin. This states that the demand from the record label is to portray the artist in a seductive, consequently increasing sales in the male domain. Therefore a path to go down, if we wanted to develop the pop music video genre, would be to imitate what successful artist in the pop genre have already produced. Or we could challenge the pop genre and do something in the complete opposite direction. Which would be risky but could prove to be effective. 

Researching music videos includes a variety of aspects, one being analysing whether it was concept, performance or narrative based. Goodwin states that every music video will either be performance, concept or narrative based. Although you would not be able to differentiate between whether a genre is strictly performance of strictly narrative, the pop music video genre has strong performance and narrative based generic conventions occurring throughout the entire genre. It is very rare to see a concept based music video in the pop music video genre as it is too different, and most of the time the demands of the record label are to use and develop the generic conventions rather then to challenge them. This therefore impacted our decision to develop and use performance and narrative based themes in our final piece.

Audience Research

10th of October - Research (Ideas for final product)

Today whilst analysing different music videos we stumbled across a music video which has the title of the artist and the song fade in and out of the video, overlapping over the video. Sir spotted it out and said that it would be very effective to use in our music video as it is clear, distinctive and creates a relationship between the audience and the artist almost instantly as the audience are aware of the artists name and song name from the start. It also looks very modern which is part of the feel we are trying to achieve when portraying our final piece.

The idea stemmed from the music video for 'Dizzy Wright - Solo Dolo'

Brand New Day - Anamatic

Ideas for Preliminary Task

Ideas:

Song one (slow)

*Mystery
*Murder scene
*Camera
*Pool
*Seductive
*Smoking
*Stroking
*Note pad
*Taking pictures
*Close up
*Jumpy cuts
*Illusion

Song two (fast)
*Chase
*Superhero vs Villain
*Car chase
*Police
*Band
*Drugs
*Rush
*Running chase
*Fast movement
*Obsession
*Bored
*Gradually going mentally unstable

What we plan to include:
Illusions, Mental state changing, Illness, Pills, Glass, Extreme editing to show mental state, Showing before and after - picture as a child with make up or blood running down his or her face to show how he or she changed.

Preliminary task brief: 
Working in your production groups you are to produce two audio-visual.

Our idea for our task, was to create an illusion effect for both the slow and fast music, here is an example from musicians Trey Songz music video 'Can't be friends'.