Want U Back

Cher Lloyd:

Genre Characteristics Cher Lloyd is of the pop genre and her song Want U Back includes many generic conventions which agree to this genre. The pop genre is usually associated with love and heartbreak, up beat, positive music which often has colourful and bright music videos which also include some humour. This song conforms to this as it is about a girl wanting her boyfriend back however it presented in a fun, quirky way. Instead of focusing on the break up, this song explores the good times as if she was there in an attempt to get him back.

In these shots, she put herself into the scenarios her ex boyfriend is in with his new girlfriend, In pop music rivalry between women is often seen a lot of and this conforms to it. This also explores the idea of the first girlfriend always has the power over the new girlfriend.

Promote/Sell Artist

As this is quite a fun song, the artist is seen as a fun loving, funny typical young woman/ teenager who made a mistake and wants her boyfriend back. This shows her as being quite mischievous and cheeky which makes the audience like her and makes her seem more ‘real’ as oppose to perfect which is something many pop artists portray themselves as in their music videos.

Sitting on her bed, with just a white top on and her hair tied up, shows her as quite sweet and innocent as well as quite ordinary

Opposite of how we saw her before, now sitting in a bath tub white confetti all over her and her hair messy, shows he having fun and looking a little crazy

Lyrics and VisualsMuch of the lyrics in this song which match the visuals are all examples of her calling him out and making fun of him and his current relationship. This is effective as the audience get to follow the story from before the song to the present so it draws them in and makes them feel as though they are there with her which makes it more personal.

“This ain’t even jealousy , she ain’t got a thing on me” Here he is features in a magazine while she comments on the new girlfriend being nothing compared to her, the idea of a magazine suggests fame, beauty- something desirable which is quite humorous as we is being quite vain and complimenting herself.

“Remember all the things you and I did first…now you're taking her to every restaurant” This is suggesting he's still hung up on her that he's doing the things he did with her all over again.

Has all their photos saved and makes fun of them. “Looking like a pair of clowns”

Music and Visuals

The song itself can be seen as quite unique and fun, this is complimented with the creative visuals used such as the moving photographs and the magazine she’s moving in. It’s effective as there are a variety of shots with creative transitions which match the beat of the music as it is very fast paced. Cher is mainly known for her facial expressions and this adds a comical, quirky element and compliments the sound effects of “ERGH” throughout the song/

Frequent Looking

In many of the scenes in which the artist is singing she is directly facing the looking at the camera which establishes the relationship between the artist and the audience. In this video, Cher frequently looks into the camera after every few shots to create that connection with the audience as well as to make them believe/ reassure them about what she's saying/ singing.

The only time she’s not looking directly into the camera is when she Is looking as the pictures or inside the pictures

Intertextuality

This music video doesn’t really intertexualise as much as it is very unique and by referencing to other music videos, it may be taking away the rarity of this music video. This is common amongst new and upcoming artists as nowadays being unique and recognised as an individual is what a lot of artists strive for as they don’t want the constant comparisons to other artists.

One media reference which was used is her being starred in a magazine, this suggests that she thinks of herself as famous, desirable and someone who should be a role model for her audience,