Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Chris Brown – Forever – Analysis
This video has both elements of performance and narrative. It begins with the performer, Chris Brown coming out of an Audi R8, which portrays his star image. Expensive items are often used in modern music videos including popular artists to help display their fame and sometimes brag about how much money they earn as an artist. Luxury items may often appeal to the viewers as the majority of people are inspired by the artist and therefore aspire to have the luxury lifestyle as shown in certain music videos. Chris Brown is clearly promoted through medium and close up shots of him driving expensive cars and also from his dress code: his jacket, shirt and trainers, which are all an expensive brnads, but at the same time making him look casual, so that the audience can relate to him as a normal person. Chris Brown is also knwon for his good dancing skills, therefore like many of his videos there is a sequence of him dancing alone, as kind of his signiture to his videos.
Intertexuality is used in this music video, as although Chris Brown's dancing is of a high standard, it can also be linked to the iconic performance of Michael Jackson.
The lyrics of the song match the performance of the video, making it mainly illustrative. The story of this music video is made clear through the performane; Chris Brown is in love with this girl and clearly would do anything for her, even falling off a building for her, as shown in the video. There are two parallel elements in this video; one includes him dancing with a crowd in a club and the other of him dancing with the girl alone, expressing his intimate love.
CGI effects are used to show how chaotic and 'out of this world' feeling that Chris Brown may be feeling dancing with a girl that the really loves.
Most of the video is lip-synced, using close up shots to demonstrate this. His dancing and the way the shots are cut matches the beat of the music. He combines dancing and lip syncing throughout doing both at the same time at numerous ocassions.
All American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret Analysis
The lyrics of the song relate very much to the actual video itself. This meant that it is an amplification and narrative video. The lyrics concentrate primarily on the concept of 'post secrets'. The chorus including "I'll keep you my dirty little secret, don't tell anyone..."
Throughout the video, at regular intervals, a montage of postcard sized placards revealing personal secrets are held up by different people. I found the different shots used at moments very interesting in relation to the lyrics. For example, the first secret displayed at 0:10, reveals, "I want to go blind, so I don't see them together". A close up shot of the placard was used keeping the secret the main focus. In turn, this made the person's face blurred in the background and out of focus. This technique was used on numerous other secrets shown also. This links nicely with the lyrics suggesting the secrets to be too embarrassing to own up to, therefore they are written down and hiding their identity.
However, at some intervals the people wear a bag over their head to further emphasise the shame of the secret but also adding comedic value to the video as some of the secrets revealed were humorous. To add to the comedy, the placards were either printed in a non-formal font or hand written, accompanied by a corresponding cartoon picture. A good example of this is shown at 0.41; "I pee in the sink".
In addition to the lyrics and video having a connection, at 1:49 the lyrics 'The way she feels inside, those thoughts I can't deny' compliments the secret being displayed by the woman stating, 'Sometimes I think my fiancé isn't the one." This influences the decision that the secrets may at times be random, but some have specific, direct relevance to the lyrics.
Like the majority of music videos, the shots are normally cut according to the beat of the song. Although this video does not necessarily cut to the beat of the music, there are a variety of shots that in my opinion, make this video just as successful as the ones that do use it. Despite this, it still uses other elements associated with popular music videos.
The opening of the video consists of a long shot of the group playing their instruments to the song. They are performing in what looks like a studio with all the placards included within the video bloated and organised together to form a wallpaper behind the band whilst they play. The placards had a multipurpose which I found clever and creative, keeping the theme of the video there throughout by cutting alternately from the band to the placards. Close ups of individual band members were used, mainly of the lead singer, Tyson Ritter. The electric guitar is associated as the most important instrument within the making of 'rock' music. Therefore, a close up was used of the band member's fingers playing on the neck of the electric guitar more times than any other instrument. The vocal is the most important element of any music video. Therefore, the lead vocalist, Tyson Ritter, is focused on the most, with close ups of his face and in particular his mouth lip syncing into the microphone stand.
Mise en scene and costume is also a key part of presenting different characters to the audience in order to make a successful music video. Due to being associated as a 'rock' band, the members have dressed accordingly to the stereotypical view of what a modern rock band looks like. The band are considered to have long hair for a males, styled as though naturally 'untamed' to connect with the target audience of their music genre, which is generally teenage students. In addition, to further match the typical 'rock' appearance, the band are wearing dark, casual clothing such as a plain t-shirt and black skinny jeans. Likewise, with all media products, make-up is also crucial for portraying the characters. In this music video, they have used very subtle, natural make-up. This is considered important within the media as image has become an increasing factor in order to make particularly an artist's career successful. Their songs are mainly advertised through their videos and image, not the singer's voice and soundtrack individually nowadays.
To conclude, I find this music video very creative and individual with some of techniques used. It can also be linked with modern music videos also because a lot of the same elements were used associated with popular videos, such as the crucial close up shot of the singer lip syncing. Overall, a very good music video that also shared a moral throughout.