RESEARCH & PLANNING - Music Video Analysis

RESEARCH & PLANNING - Music Video Analysis

Music Video Analysis (1) by user141103262

Analysis of music video California Girls by Katy Perry By Izzy Albutt

Image 1-

Editing of the box opening at the start.

Image 2-

Location and Costume

Image 3-

Camera Shot

Image 4-

Dance scene

Male Gaze theory- In this video the male gaze theory is being shown where Katy Perry is being shown as a sex symbol to males especially seen in the 3rd image.

RESEARCH & PLANNING - Music Video Analysis

Music video analysis - youtube video script

The music video I am going to be analysing is Ariana Grande’s song ‘Focus’. This is a music video that sticks to the stereotypes of a pop music video and uses a lot of dance and is based heavily off the director’s artistic approach.

First, I will be analysing the mise-en-scene. There is lots of differents sets and lighting used within the music video which keeps the audiences engaged throughout. The setting is very simplistic, each one is a block colour and often just has Ariana Grande in small shape. Each of these shots uses the lighting in order to create shadows or show off the artist with bright lighting. The shadow effects show off the figures of Ariana and the other dancers and is used for male gaze theory.

Next, I will be Analysing the sound. The music itself is computer generated and has a repetitive sound to it. The first line in the lyrics is 'I know what I came to do and that ain't gonna change.' The iconic sign of colloquial language is recognisable to the audience, for example it says ‘gonna’ instead of ‘going to’. This makes the audience relate to it more as they use this language on a daily basis and find it sounds more natural to say for them.

The preferred reading of this line in the song would be that Ariana Grande is talking about that she is not only aiming to entertain, but to love and share everything with the world and help to make people feel empowered and happy. I can see this as Ariana Grande says in an interview.

The first line of ‘Focus’ is: ‘I know what I came to do and that ain’t

gonna change.’ What I came here to do in this world is not only to entertain but to love, to share, to listen, to improve, to learn, to share music, to share experience, to share feelings, to make people feel happy and empowered.

However, the oppositional reading of this is that the song is sexualising what she is saying and the audience could be thinking that all she has on her mind. The lyrics that infer this are the chorus where it says ‘focus on me, you know I like it when you focus on me’ as to many listeners, that would mean focus in a relationship and people wouldn’t necessarily get the Idea that Ariana Grande and the producers were aiming for.

The camera angles tend to be close ups or long shots. The close ups suggest sensuality and that Grande is flirtatious with audience members, further playing on the male gaze theory within the video. The camera brings out the focus on the eyes on the lips and these will entice male audience members as they are the facial features they are drawn to, she is also biting her lip and ‘batting her eyelashes’ which are seen as quite sexual movements. The long shots in the video are often when Ariana is dancing and the camera is showing the whole of her body. This along with the revealing and short outfits creates an oppositional reading of having to dress in very little amounts of clothing and being sensual to younger audiences. The preferred reading of this however is that they are just playful and costumes that are, as the audiences would say, ‘cute’ and ‘fun’.

RESEARCH & PLANNING - Magazine Advert Analysis

RESEARCH & PLANNING - Digipak Analysis

RESEARCH & PLANNING - Digipak and Magazine advert analysis

RESEARCH & PLANNING - Digipak Analysis

The front cover clearly wants to encode to the audience the idea of Katy Perry's world and what she wants to show. This can be seen through the typography and the fact she is lying on candyfloss which is clearly a dream. However an audience may decode that she is sexualising herself being naked on the cloud. The audience may not be attracted to the digi-pak due to it being her world but because she is seen as a sex symbol.