Analysis Of Three Music Videos

Dwayne Grossett

Beyonce – Run The World

Editing: Transitions and Special Effects

The quick editing of shots where Beyonce is riding the horse occurs in time with the fast beat of the music. Therefore there is link visuals and music.

By Beyonce being on the black horse shows that she is the dominant person in the seen so for, due to mostly men riding horses.

Girl being on a cross, shows that girls are being crucified liked Jesus did who is considered to be the son of God

Close up of Beyonce wearing jewellery like an Egyptian queen/goddess, showing she is in charge.

Camera: Movements, Shots and Angles

Tracking shot, follows her as she rides on her horse, establishing the scene.

Camera zooms in on the men coming in with shields ad things, which gives an idea of war.

The camera then shows all the women standing still with no fear or any facial expression, showing they aren't scare of the army of men coming.

Dominant Ideologies: what ideologies are presented in the video? Are they dominant or not?

The lion laying down next to Beyonce shows she has the lion under control and a lion is said to be the ‘king’ of the jungle.

Whilst she is dancing in the middle she has two men in front of her like body guard, yet again showing she is important.

“My persuasion can build a nation”As she says this, you then she having two wild dog-like animals on leash, which could represent her having men at her feet and then “He’ll do anything for me” (Beyonce).

At the end of the video all the girls salute the men, showing that in the end even though they feel they run the world men do and they can manipulate the men to do what they want because yet again ‘he’ll do anything for me’ (women).

Mise-En-Scene: colour, costume, props, location, facial expressions etc.

The girl are wearing different colours, whilst the men are all wearing black and all have weapons, which shows that the men are aggressive and preventing women from ruling.

The girls begin a seductive kind of dance and as they do this the men begin to get distracted by the dance and seem all intrigued.

The video is shot in a desert like location and there’s fire and stuff, which makes it look like there has been a war going on... Over the world Between Men and Woman.

Intertextuality

Doing a close up of the dancers shoes promoting the shoes in the process.

This then makes you feel that because if a celebrity is having these type of shoes in their video and most of all having

close ups of them.

How Can Andrew Goodwin’s Theory Be Applied to This Video?

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.(e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

Although Beyonce is no longer in a girl band, she normally has her two specific female dancers who are in most of her videos and during this video they are also there along with other females, which links with theory 1 of Goodwin’s theory.

By Beyonce saying girls run the world and her having wild animals on a leash backs up her statement.

Audience reception: how might the audience react to or view the video? Stuart Hall’s theory of preferred reading.

2. Negotiated reading – the reader partly believes the code and broadly accepts the preferred reading but sometimes modifies it in a way which reflects their own position, experiences and interests.

I think that it is negotiated reading because it is true that certain women have the power to get men to do whatever that they want and due to some men having power, women can manipulate them into doing things.

Even though they say men are more dominant, a fact to back up the statement in which Beyonce is making is that the said to be most powerful person is the Queen of England and she is a woman.

Laura Mulvey

Suggests that women in all media are objectified. She is a feminist who believes that women are often shown through the ideas of men (men gaze) and are seen in voyeuristic ways. She also thinks that women are seen in one of either two ways the “virgin” character or a “whore” character. This is the “virgin/whore dichotomy”.

Even though in the video Beyonce showed dominance, she however also shows women from a men’s gaze by doing seductive dancing during certain scenes.

Chris Brown - Loyal

Camera: Movements, Shots and Angles

The camera shows the boyfriends reaction and how the girl doesn’t seem to care very much. This has the effect on the songs title ‘Loyal’.

The camera ensures that you can see the ‘X’, promoting the name for his new album in the process.

Dominant Ideologies: what ideologies are presented in the video? Are they dominant or not?

Chris Brown being surrounded by girls showing masculinity and dominance.

Tyga having a female Tiger on a leash, showing that he has control over the animal, likewise with a female.

Mise-En-Scene: colour, costume, props, location, facial expressions etc.

Tigers are considered to be fierce jungle animals, and by having it on a leash like a pet, this can be seen as having power.

This can also associate with females, because most men see females as fierce and having attitude and be having the tiger on a leash this could show that he can also have women do what he wants. The fact that there

are mostly men in this scene of the video could represent the fact that they think less of women and think men are more dominant, reason for only women not being ‘loyal’ ad not men as well.

Intertextuality

Chris Brown promoting his new album ‘X’.

Shisha pens being promoted and more than one person using it.

Girls are using a messaging app to send messages (promoting).

Lil Wayne promoting TrunkFit, by wearing a TrunkFit hat with the store directly behind him.

How Can Andrew Goodwin’s Theory Be Applied to This Video?

3. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in rick videos, dance routine).For example: A video of a stage performance is typical for a rock genre video, a dance routine for a Pop band and Flashy cars, large groups or a lot of women are in rap videos, which is exactly what is shown throughout the video.Flashy cars are shown in the background, large groups of wealthy young guys are seen and a lot of woman are shown within the video.

Chris Brown saying that girls aren’t loyal, then he goes and takes away a guys girl right in front of the guy.

Audience reception: how might the audience react to or view the video? Stuart Hall’s theory of preferred reading.

3. Oppositional reading – the reader’s social position places them in an oppositional relation to the dominant code. They reject the reading. , they disagree with the text.

I said oppositional because most viewers might find the lyrics of the song offensive because he is saying that girls are un-loyal and viewers might feel that woman are being generalised.

Laura Mulvey

Suggests that women in all media are objectified. She is a feminist who believes that women are often shown through the ideas of men (men gaze) and are seen in voyeuristic ways. She also thinks that women are seen in one of either two ways the “virgin” character or a “whore” character. This is the “virgin/whore dichotomy”.

In this case the song in itself is suggesting that woman are the ‘whore’ type and even shows a girl leaving her partner for someone with more money.

Miley Cyrus -

Editing: Transitions and Special Effects

A deep voice says “this our party we can do what we want”, this has an effect on the audience because the voice sounds aggressive and dominant, which has a sense of seriousness.

Camera: Movements, Shots and Angles

When Miley states “we run things don't run we”, this camera jumps to her and her friends in the swimming pool, which supports the fact that they run things and having fun doing so.

At the end of the video, the movement is slow paced and shows Miley’s jewellery showing he new wild and ‘gangster’ side.

Dominant Ideologies: what ideologies are presented in the video? Are they dominant or not?

“We run things, things don’t run we”This suggests that she is in charge of herself and no one can tell her what to do, and due to her age, mostly likely her parents are the ones who can’t stop her.

“This is our house, this is our rules”“This our party we can do what we want!”This is Miley making a statement that saying she is able to do what she wants and now one can come and tell her what to do or judge her because ‘ only God can judge her and forget the people who are hating”.So throughout the video all you see is her and her friends having a good time and partying because they are still young but at the same time old enough to do whatever she likes.

Mise-En-Scene: colour, costume, props, location, facial expressions etc.

Miley holding a doll and a big teddy bear shows that even though she is of age to legally do grown up things, she is still young, backing up her saying “we can’t stop and we won’t stop”

The ‘censored’ sign over the girls mouth is a representation of teenage kids nowadays, who tend to swear a lot and hold parties... Just like in this video.

Intertextuality

Promoting the new ‘Beats Pills’. If a celebrity is seen using this and has close ups of the item then this would mean that Miley Cyrus fans would most likely buy them and increase purchases.

‘ecs’ lipstick being promoted.•Best Lipstick•New style•Celebrities use it so should you!

How Can Andrew Goodwin’s Theory Be Applied to This Video?

5 - There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.The notion of looking includes men or women being portrayed in a seductive way or if there is eye contact being made with the camera. The notion of looking can be referenced by the use of props.Voyeurism is used to sell the artist's music through sex appeals

4 - The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and across their work (a visual style).

Throughout the video, she represents explicit and seductive movements, e.g. The part where she is ‘Twerking’.

Even though it is her own video, a lot of shots are used where you can really she her rather than just seeing other people, the camera is more focussed on her.

2. Negotiated reading – the reader partly believes the code and broadly accepts the preferred reading but sometimes modifies it in a way which reflects their own position, experiences and interests.

Audience reception: how might the audience react to or view the video? Stuart Hall’s theory of preferred reading.

I would say negotiated reading because Miley is showing in the video that she can in fact do as she wants and no one can stop her but herself, but some viewers can challenge this because she can’t in fact do as she pleases because if her record label doesn’t like how she is acting, they could release her from her contract if they wanted.

Laura Mulvey

Suggests that women in all media are objectified. She is a feminist who believes that women are often shown through the ideas of men (men gaze) and are seen in voyeuristic ways. She also thinks that women are seen in one of either two ways the “virgin” character or a “whore” character. This is the “virgin/whore dichotomy”.

In this video I would say that Miley is represented more in the ‘whore’ way rather than the ‘virgin’ role. This is because she is seen wearing mostly revealing clothes where you can see her revealing too much skin; the dances in which she carries out is also seen to be explicit.