Music Video Analysis

1) Taylor Swift- Mean

I have firstly chosen the music video 'Mean' by Taylor Swift as I think it's quite a deep and meaningful piece. This video is centered around the experiences of being picked on and bullied, and the video visualizes how we must keep on going no matter how bad it gets. The video is really powerful from the outset and throughout. There are multiple scenarios in the video where we can see examples of the bullying take place. The video eventually transitions to showing the bright futures that the bullied children and Taylor Swift herself have reached because of their determination to make something of themselves. Taylor wants her audience (majority teenage girls) to shrug off the bullies and keep positive. All the mise-en-scene makeup/clothing/props etc mirror the country genre as everything is very old fashioned and western which reflects the country genre. A bright spotlight focuses on each of the bullied characters in the song to allow us to focus on their emotions. The video combines two visual styles; performance and narrative. In relation to Andrew Goodwin's Theory published in his book 'Dancing in the distraction factory' this video reflects it's genre' video style and iconography as in most country videos we tend to see them playing instruments such as the banjo, the setting (backdrop in this case) is usually in a rural western farm area. So Taylor Swift has really gone back to her country video roots. Many close ups of the main artist within this music video also shows she is the main focus and that she is the product being marketed.

2) LMFAO- Party Rock Anthem

I have secondly picked 'Party Rock Anthem' by LMFAO as it completely contrasts my first video. The whole video is one big dance routine, this relates back to Andrew Goodwins theory of video style and iconography as in most Electronic dance videos we tend to see lots of dancing and bright clothing. Another aspect of their video iconography is the gold dancing robot which appears in every LMFAO video, this really works as even if you can't see the main artists in the video you will know it's LMFAO because of the gold robot. Every actor/dancer in this video is wearing LMFAO's Party Rock clothing range, they have done this in every video to date, this has become part of their star iconography. This also promotes their clothing line and the bright dance scene colours will also appeal to their target audiences fashion sense. Going back to Andrew Goodwin's Theory, LMFAO have used intertextual references from the film 28 Days Later, this is really creative and unusual as instead of having infected people who turn into zombies they have turned the 'zombies' into people who cannot stop dancing. ‘The shuffle’ is a dance routine which is the main performance in this video, it is a very fashionable dance move which viewers are very keen to be able to perform. The routine went viral and references to it in the song helped it be effective.

3) Demi Lovato- Skyscraper

The final video I have chosen is 'Skyscraper by Demi Lovato. Demi Lovato has used her music to help her though her personal struggles, while using this openness to connect to her audience and help them get through their own struggles. I feel this is a really emotional and personal piece and Demi conveys this to the audience really well. Throughout the video there are many close ups of the Demi Lovato, this allows us to see the raw emotion in her face, this also relates back to one of Goodwin's Theories. Goodwin stated that there is a demand from the record company to have lots of close-up At the beginning of the video Lovato’s voice shakes and she sounds like she is on the verge of tears. The volume is soft in order to increase the emotional impact. The mood of 'Skyscraper' goes from sad to uplifting. The mise-en-scene/makeup/clothing/props are all very simple and plain, but this has been used so the only thing to focus on is the artist and the song itself. The colours of demi's costume and surroundings are very light and quite heavenly, insinuating that this is her kind of rebirth into the music industry ( due to her recent stay in rehab).