Music Video analysis: Katy Perry- A part of me

This music video by Katy Perry, shows very heavy use of narrative, this being that a tainted relationship that has always made her not do what she wanted to do in life and held her back is finally over, by her accord, thus helping her grown stronger and then committing her life to the marines. As the video begins the use of diegetic sound is a radio station in which people are calling it and talking about their relationship issues:
Presenter: "So why you still with him then?" Distressed woman: "He says that one day he wants to have kids with me, and that he
hates travelling and being away from me". Presenter: "So whats the problem?" Distressed woman: "How come it takes him like two hours to call me back, I just think that's shady." as this is happening we see Katy Perry who plays the main character looking at a locket and at a man kissing a attractive blonde woman at a work environment. This is interesting at just by this 25 second extract of the music video we as a viewer already understand what is happening in the world of the music video and that the main female character is at breaking point of being disrespected in her relationship. As the female lead confronts her spouse and tells him there relationship is over the music begins. This was to show the importance of this part of the video, it was important that the viewer understood this part of the narrative.

As the main character goes into a shop and sees an advertisement for the marines saying "All women are created equal, then some become marines" this is a slight foreshadowing of the events to come, she then abruptly goes into the toilets and in a very distressing scene she cuts off all of her hair whilst crying, this shows the extent in which she is going, to rid herself of all of the thoughts of her ex-spouse. As she is getting ready to go to the marine camp, she also wraps her bust in bandage to hide her womanly parts, her cutting of her hair and covering her cleavage shows her striving to become seen as equal, not as a woman but as a equal human being. As the story progresses we see her using a memory of her and her spouse at a fun fair playing a game with a fake gun targeting an object, which she uses to her advantage when practicing to shoot targets with real guns in a drill.

Throughout the video Katy Perry is acting as this strong female in the marines, but occasionally singing parts of the song to show that this is still a music video, there is also a main singing part of the music video were Katy Perry is slightly acting out of character as herself singing and dancing in the army uniform, she also seems slightly more done up make up wise and seems to be smiling and seems free which is not seen at any other time in the music video. The music video ends in a highly interesting shot of the main character staring intensely into the camera with a sense of anger and full camouflage make-up .

Music video analysis: Kanye West ft T-Pain- Goodlife

As the music video starts we see the main star (Kanye West) writing words with a black marker, this helps the rest of the music video be layed out as Kanye West writing this, although as the video progresses he is not writing with a pen anymore we know all of these words and pictures seen are a part of Kanye's thoughts. This music video relies on the use of writing and animations. The music video pictures are also linked to the words said in the dong for example, when Kanye West says “I go to shine” this is what is said in thick black writing next to him, as if it is some type of speech bubble of words written in thick black writing. This use of constant animated writing on the screen makes the viewer seem as if what we are watching is in fact a diary of what he is saying. Kanye West has also added advertisement of his own into the music video as someone who is a fan will notice these two connotations of Kanye West as an artist; 1. Being the sunglasses that he made fashionable and 2. The use of teddy bears dressed as jock, which was seen as his mascot. As viewers we know that these animations are not real, but in one part of the music video Kanye West seems to be sitting on a flashy car which is an animation.

As this genre of music is hip hop/rap it was only conventional that scantly clad women are seen in the music video, not only is their a real women seen to be Kanye's love interest but there is also several semi dressed animated women throughout the music video. The use of one particular part of writing covering a derogatory word that cannot be shown was interesting, these words are normal to hip hop/rap genre music, meaning 

these words are inevitable and had to be dodged and were dodged cleverly without being blatant and without offending anyone. There is no narrative in this music video, apart from the fact that we know Kanye West and T-Pain are companions and the woman in video is Kanye Wests love interest because of the interaction between the characters and their facial expressions wee know as a viewer that this is a light hearted video which is to be taken as fun. Kanye West, T-Pain and the leading lady are also only seen in black and white, with bold bright colours seen behind them, I believe this was done to highlight the writing and the animations, not the characters.

Goodwins theory applied to a music video- Rihanna (We Found Love)

HIGHLIGHTS OF RIHANNAS MUSICAL CAREER 2005- PRESENT

Rihanna is a Caribbean artist who is known for her eccentric take on music, since she entered the music scene since 2001 with her début single “Pon di replay”. Rihanna began her journey of her musical career with a highly innocent, “girl next door”persona, This helped us as audiences be comfortable with Rihanna and the music that she had to offer, nothing about her came across risqué or taboo in any way, which means that she had a very large target audience from the beginning of her career which only helped her future music attain a wider following. A year after becoming a international sensation Rihanna kept her “good girl” attitude, but included subliminal bursts of rebellious nature in her second album “A girl like me” bringing out such tracks as “Unfaithful” and “Dem haters”. After this year Rihanna already being compared to the likes of Beyonce in the media industry brought out her highly successful third album “Good girl gone bad” the name of the album describes the route Rihanna had now taken, Her persona had changed dramatically from her squeaky clean look a mere 2- 3 years earlier. Now bringing out such tracks as “Hate that I love you” and “Rehab” in her third album Rihanna had now not only changed her style of music, to a hip hop style with rock edge, but she drastically changed her hair and dress styling, making her not only a music icon but admired in the fashion industry as well. Thus making her a highly influential person in that particular year. Her two later albums reflect her hardcore side also being seen as a powerful woman, who was also battling a highly publicised domestic violence case with her ex boyfriend Chris Brown at the same time as her fourth album release “Rated R”. Rihanna has later released her fifth album “Loud” and will be releasing her sixth album “Talk that talk” in November 2011.

This music video starts off being very grey and dull, This is simply a pathetic fallacy of the way the couple in the video are feeling: Depressed and hopeless whilst this is happening there is is a voice over, of someone with a accent from the united Kingdom, The contents of the voice over is an emotional piece talking about love and life “I saw you screaming and no one could hear, You almost feel ashamed that someone could that be that important, that without them you feel like nothing, no one will ever understand how much it hurts. You feel hopeless like nothing can save you and when it’s over and it’s gone, you almost wish that you could have all that bad stuff back so you could have the good.” This introduces the dramatic nature of the story that is about to unfold in this video.

There are many shot of intimacy within this video between Rihanna and her on screen partner, showing that there love is in such a stage were they do not like to be apart for too long, as the music starts. There are many many more scenes of intimacy within the video including general scenes in which they seem to just be staring at each other or holding hands, Helping the viewer see there highly loving relationship.

Although Rihanna seems to be scene with her “Boyfriend” in this loving relationship she seems to be highly scantly clad in most of the video which applies to Goodwin's theory as she still has to familiarise which her loyal male fans, who might not be as interested in this love story as the female fans. She still shows off her assests regularly in this video which will entice more people both male and female to watch this video, Thus getting a bigger viewing because of the the lack of clothing that she Is wearing.

The message of this video is feeling a sense of euphoria with the person that you love, showing

scenes of flashing lights, colourfully edited cigarettes, pupils dilating. This shows the effect of both someone you love, and the abuse of drugs and alcohol, which is heavily seen in this music video. Not only is there scenes of illegal intake of drugs and stealing, but subtle scenes of intercourse and alcohol intoxication is seen. All of these things show that in this particular music video Rihanna has changed from her former “good role model” status. These four things apart from her lack of clothing show the “realness” of this music video, this is all things seen n a day to day basis for new couples seeking happiness in there relationships, this is simple something Rihanna has chosen to convey in this video.

After this highly euphoric montage of scenes that we see, The pictures seen begin to become a

lot more gritty and unpleasant, Including, pictures of Rihanna being sick and an argument in a vehicle with her on screen parter, This scene could be heavily seen as a remake of Rihannas famous fight with her real life ex boyfriend Chris Brown. This scene will be very interesting to anyone who new about this event as the model/actor playing the part of Rihannas boyfriend, Looks a lot like her allegedly aggressive famous ex boyfriend (Chris Brown). With this similarity in mind, there is a thought that this video might be a reconstruction of the real love that Chris Brown and Rihanna shared, which lead to the couples “Hopeless love” into its inevitable break up, which are lyrics of the song “We Found Love”. Nobody seems to be more dominating this video interestingly, Both the male and female leads have equal anger towards each other and are seen to care highly for each other. Rihanna is seen to have a tattoo which reads “MINE” being put on her bottom, by her boyfriend, this shows the willingness of Rihannas character as she is insisting it is to be done, which shows the seriousness of this relationship that the two share.

The video is shot in a sequence of quick shots each seen at a different scene, with different clothing. This shows that us as viewers are seeing the journey that the couple are going through. It is not just one day of love, but a while. Interesting shots including whip shots and are also seen to show the state that the pair is in after taking their drugs, everything around them is going fast and there are the only two people around. Throughout the whole video there is no interaction seen with other actors at all, Just the two of them, alone.