Music Video Analysis Katy Perry – Hot n’ Cold

Andrew Godwin wrote a Music Video Analysis within ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992) he states the various elements to look for when analysing a music video and I will apply this when evaluating Katy Perry’s music video to her single ‘Hot n Cold’.
The video was filmed in 2008 by Alan Ferguson who also directed a number of other pop videos for artists such as; Nelly Furtardo, Natasha Bedingfield, Gym Class Heroes, Fall Out Boy and many others.
Hot n Cold falls into the genre of Pop music. This is evident through the bright, block colour scheme of pinks, blues etc. as well as the obvious narrative and dance routines throughout. The lyrics are light-hearted and help portray a clear narrative to run through the video. The fact that the music begins and ends with acting helps set out the video with a strong narrative making it easier for younger audiences to understand as the pop genre is listened to by all age groups.
Goodwin, within his music video analysis, talks about the relationship between lyrics and visuals within music videos and how these can either be; illustrative, amplifying or contradicting. Within Katy Perry’s video the relationship between visuals and lyrics tend to be illustrative. The lyrics are expressed in many ways, Katy does hand movements and dance moves that reflect what is being said within the song, such as “we kiss” when she blows a kiss to the camera, as well as “someone call the doctor” when she mimes a phone to her ear. Within the chorus, the lyrics are amplified throughout, the lyric “out” is shown when the groom bursts out of the church. The lyrics “you’re up and you’re down” are shown when the Groomsmen are up high at the top of the church and then the camera cuts to the Groom running away and going down the stairs. “It’s black and its white” is illustrated by the groom in his black suit which then immediately cuts to the bride wearing a white dress. Continuously through the video the lyric “you” is greatly amplified by the artist exaggerating a point towards the groom, camera and other characters within the video. The lyric in the hook “you change your mind like a girl changes clothes” is largely exaggerated by the amount of costume changes by the artist herself, which also amplifies the idea of “bipolar” as in different outfits she has different moods, e.g. the wedding dress = sad/upset, rocker outfit = anger and the street dancer look = happiness. Also, the idea of “hot and cold” is subtly shown through the video as its set on a hot day with sunshine or in the rave but then there are signs to signify cold such as ice cream, watermelon etc.
Andrew Goodwin also says about the relationship between music and visuals and how these can either be illustrative, amplifying or contradicting within a music video. In terms of the Hot n Cold video, the relationship seems to be differing between illustrative and contradicting. The camera at the beginning cuts at various times when the beat is clearly steady, this is part of the contradictive relationship between the music and visuals, these randomly timed cuts keep viewers exited and doesn’t cause for a boring video. The camera also cuts on the quick, double-beats in the chorus to keep the pace fast and variant as the chorus has a faster beat than the verses. The various, small instrumentals are shown through dancers and not the artist, as well as lots of camera cuts to get a full idea of all the craziness within the video. In terms of amplifying the beat, as soon at the song cuts in, the wedding party all bounce in time with the beat.
The demands of the record label have clearly included a need for lots of close-ups and camera time on the artist herself. This is because Katy Perry is a well-liked figure in the media and public eye and so having her in a vast majority of the video is a great way for the track to sell. Having Katy Perry in a number of different outfits within the video show audiences that she is versatile and can fit into any situation with anyone, making her liked and watched by a wider audience, however this isn’t the real her. This supports Richard Dyer’s theory that a star is completely constructed and has nothing real about them.
The theory by Laura Mulvey about female representation within videos talks about the male gaze, how men look at women as objects and not much else is shown within this video. This theory is clearly supported at the end of the video there is a point of view shot from the groom as it reveals Katy Perry slowly with an upward pan shot from her legs to her face.
It is clear to see that Katy Perry has developed a specific look and motif that is formed throughout her videos, these include the bright colour schemes, obvious/strange narratives as well as dance routines and the artist herself becoming a character.
The video is a combination of performance and concept. The performance side is shown through the artist lip syncing the song throughout and dancing to it. The conceptual idea is obvious as the video is a dream sequence and therefore allows for strange mise-en scene and ideas to be portrayed.

Group Meeting 5- Powerpoint

In our 5th group meeting happened after our pitch.
We received good feedback from the pitch and after analysing our questionnaires we now know exactly what we need to make our video even better.

Music Video Analysis

Artist: Nicki Minaj

Director: Sannaa Hamri

Label: Young Money, Cash Money, Universal Motown

Producer: Kane Beatz, JMIKE

I will be using Andrew Goodwins, 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' Routledge 1992 and Laura Mulvey 'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema'- 1975, to analyse Nicki Minaj's music video of Super Bass.

This song is a typical R&B song and the genres traits run through to the video. This being women being seen as sexual object and men of a higher . Not only this by there are the typical R&B factors that are used, clothing being very tight and revelling for the females and men topless having a very musically body. Flashes of money, cars, planes are added to this video very typical to something you would see in another R&B video. 

 

This music video have no narrative but a conceptual idea with moments of performance. At the start of the video there are links with the visual to the lyrics, 'Got stacks on deck like he savin' up'. This illustrates the lyrics clearly through visual, which makes it clear for the audience to know what she is saying. Stock motion was used for this part, seeing the money pile up with each beat that takes place. Not only does this enhance the audiences awareness of the wealth of the person the song is about but also shows visual connection between the music and the visual. Making this part of the video interesting to look at. 

The colours used are bright and eye catching, strong female resemblance colours are used such as hot pinks and baby blues. This will appeal to the female audience. The mise-en-scene is plain with just interesting ice sculptures such as a ice motorbike and ice speakers. This makes the video look intriguing and something out of the ordinary, therefore making someone want to watch as they want to see what is coming next.

 

The clothing she is wearing is very sexual and portrays her as a sexual object. This links into Laura Mulvey's 'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema' - 1975. The male gaze is used in several shots, where we see the artist wearing very little clothing and extremely high heels. The shot starts from her feet and works upwards towards the rest of her body. You can see a group of males on looking or gazing at her. Using her as a sexual object. This whole music video is aimed at the audience of heterosexual males on looking this 'character'. 

This video uses women in a negative way, just for male pleasing, via the sexual clothing and dancing. There is a dance scene where the women are dancing on top of the men as they sit down on chairs. This resembles something that may be seen in a strip club, and undermines women.

A short slow motion clip of the artist pouring a pink liquid across her breasts is more than likely only used for the sake of male pleasing. But this has a negative effect on women and the artist fans. Young girls may look up to her and she is sending out a message that acting in this provocative way is perfectly acceptable. 

However a scene where the artist throws liquid over a male in some way repowers her, and undermines the male. Putting the artist back in control and power over the males. At 1:20 could be viewed in either way, male domination via the male gaze or looking at the levels used men on the floor and the female artist standing with hands on hips makes her look like the powerful one.

The record label Young Money, is a famous for having many R&B artists and very few of these are female, Nicki Minajbeing one of the few. This may be the reason they have demanded so many close up shots of the artist in this music video. This video is mostly focused on her and what she is doing, may it be dancing, short action scene or lyrical performance.

All about Jessie J

Jessie J.

Real name: Jessica Ellen Cornish
Stage name: Jessie J
Born:  27 March 1988 (age 23)
Labels: Lave Records, Universal Republic Records, Island Records, Gut Group 


Jessie J first started out he rmusic career by making videos of her singing via youtube. The songs being sung were a mixture of her own written vocals and other artist music. She had also written songs for the famous, Miley Cryus, Chris Brown etc. Her brilliant writing skills are the main link to her success it seems.
Jessie studied at the BRIT school alongside other successful artists such as Adele and Leona Lewis.

Since being signed she has brought out one album titled 'Who you are' which contains a number of big hits including; Price Tag featuring the vocals of B.o.B, Nobody's Perfect, Who's Laughing Now?,  Do it Like a Dude and her most recent single titled Who You Are. Her album is all her own lyrics and is very personal to her, within songs she talks about personal issues she feels should be publicized so people know they aren't going through things alone.  in her song Who's Laughing Now? she talks about her serious bullying she suffered with when at school and another song that talks about a bisexual relationship she has had.

Jessie J has received many awards in her very recent career including a 2011 Brit award, urban music award, a number of MOBO awards as well as being nominated for a lot more in a variety of categories.
Her success has been shown in many forms in that she has performed in many countries, at a number of festivals, arenas and at award ceremonies like the VMAs.

Pictures that gave inspiration

Here is a picture I found, it has given me ideas of props in which i may want to use in my music video. It looks very sweet and innocent, which I think will work well to being the opposite to the narrative of our music video.

I could see using this prop in the tea house, setting a calm, posh and friendly atmosphere. Having several of these candle mugs scattered around a table. By them being scattered it will give of a messy, edgy feel connecting to the weird music video as a whole.

Here is a picture of a light pink vintage chair. A prop that is similar to one we may use in our music video. The colour matches the theme of childlike we have running throughout.                                                                       TeaHouse

Inspiration

This image of Lady Gaga has given me inspiration in the way I want to use make-up and costume in my music video. The colours are very calm pastel palette, which I think will work well in the theme of child like. As I associate baby pink (her wig) with young girls.

The pearls used give off a vintage feel which I am incorporate into my music video. The make-up is subtle but also exaggerated in certain areas, such as the long thick eye lashes. These remind me of china dolls, props we as a group have thought would be good to add to our mise-en-scene.

This make-up could be transferred onto a person's face to make them look childlike and innocent, but twisted in the way we would use a dark lip instead of the nude gaga has gone for.

Group Meeting 4- Make-up and Costume

within this week's meeting we spoke about what mak-up and costume we would want to use, with inspiration from our mod boards and other videos that fall in our genre.

Make-up - mime, bright colours, jeweled lips, eyelashes, exaggerated eyebrows etc.
Clothes - tutus, wings, gloves with rings, masks, dresses, boots, high heels, modern colours and cuts.

Colour contrast - vintage/worn out colouring contrasted with bright/modern colours

Colour meaning- black evil, things she has said. white pure, the friend who drives away.