1. Katy Perry - California Gurls
The song ‘California Gurls’ implements how the size zero style girl is the perfect body figure and how that is everyone should look like and how that is the only body figure that someone would desire. However, I find this slightly ironic, as the mise en scene in the video is of ‘size zero’ girls dressed in sweet wrapper costumes prancing around in a world full of sweets and chocolate – all of the bad things a size zero girl would not eat in order to keep her tiny waist line. The use of the lyric ‘these are the girls I love the most’ backs the message up, about how the size zero culture is what is currently what everyone thinks is the best figure to have. The video’s narrative is also backed up by the ever-growing debate on size zero.
The use of foreground, for example, ‘lifting the lid’ on the board game, where it has the words ‘Sugar Daddy’ which again links back to the videos narrative. In one of the lyrics ‘snoop doggy dog on the stereo’ which is a direct link to the featuring artist on the track ‘Snoop Dogg’ this is obvious as the picture cuts to Snoop Dogg. As well as being the artist’s name. The lyric ‘so hot we’ll melt your popsicle’ suggests that having a tiny waist and looking slim means you are the ‘hottest’ looking person.
The background for the majority of the video is of a world of sweets and chocolate, I think what this suggests is that this would be a world of pleasure, and sin, for example the size zero girls eating this would be pleasurable, as they would never eat it in order to maintain their image, but by doing so are in sin, as they have eaten foods that are extremely bad for a person trying to diet and maintain a slim figure. From this the video is slightly poking fun at the size zero culture, because in the video itself, you have the artist who is extremely thin, yet walking through a world of bad foods and eating it also, yet she still maintains her body image.
From this analysis we could possibly use/replicate some conventions used in this video for example trying to portray a serious message through a music video. We could also use possibly a green screen which has obviously been used in this video, we could do this for example when the band is playing in front of traffic, where the traffic scene has been shot the night before then time lapsed to give it a better effect.
2. Love Drunk - Boys Like Girls
The song ‘love drunk’ focuses on the stereotyping of today’s modern society within schools and within the public itself, through talking about a summer romance one of the band members had. The use of the stereotypical skinny, good-looking girl within the video itself begins to portray the fact that she is the ideal girl and everyone would happily give up anything to be with her. But the fact that she messes them about throughout the video shows that she is infact the type of girl you would have fun with, but not an actual relationship, which is what the song is trying to get at.
The mise en scene in the video, for example the fact that they are in an arcade, shows that the video is poking fun at people who think they are in love after they’ve had a weeklong relationship. The use of 3 different boys of all different ‘cliques’ also show that it links up with the lyrics ‘all of the bullshit you put me through’ as it shows her walking off to go see another boy after using the last one for something. Again backing up the message that not all the good looking girls are the type of girl you would look for to have a relationship with.
The use of camera angles, for example the close up of the lead singer whilst he sings, helps the audience understand the emotion behind the lyrics. This can be seen through his facial expressions, which portray anger, this could also be linked to the way the song is sung, with a part screamo in the backing vocals. Again the use of angles for example the close up on the female leads face, shows that through all the pain she is putting them through she is enjoying every second of it, as he facial expressions show enjoyment and smugness.
3. Sugar We're Going Down - Fall Out Boy
The video sugar were going down, performed by fall out boy focuses on hypocrisy and social acceptance/stereotyping in modern society, within a small town, by portraying a teenage boy who has the unfortunate condition of having reindeer antlers. The fact that the opening shot is showing the main male character walking along the road suffering from abuse from young children, who have been conditioned to push away people who look different. The use of the young children shows the audience that it isn’t just adults (who are generally stereotypical of teenagers) that can be rude to people, children who have been around the influence of this can also do it. The lyric “Am I more than you bargained for yet?” also backs up the fact that the teenage boy knows he is different and wants to fit in with the society of the town, again this is also backed up by the different ‘days’ within the video, which shows him dressing stereotypically of different social groups, yet still isn’t accepted. This is also backed up by the lyric “that’s just who I am this week”.
The next scene shows the teenage boy meeting a teenage girl who in contrast to the rest of the small community can see past the boy’s condition and see’s him for who he is inside. This shows to the audience that you shouldn’t just judge a book by its cover, as the inside can be vastly different to what’s on the outside. The lyric “we’re always sleeping in, and sleeping in for the wrong team” tells the audience that even if he sleeps in which is a simple mistake, he does it wrong, because he is different and people see him differently. The lyric “isn’t it just wrong how I’m dying to be him” again reinforces the face that he wishes he wasn’t different, as he wants to be accepted by society, which is increasingly difficult for him as the community he lives in is prejudice and hypocritical as most people all have some sort of problem where it be visible or not.
The fact that the teenage girls father shows the audience that she isn’t allowed to see him anymore again backs up the fact of hypocrisy as it turns out later in the video that he himself has reindeer legs. Again the video also shows compassion for the boy as the girl decides to stand by the boy and not follow her father’s rules, showing the audience that there is more to someone than physical appearance. Also shown in the video; is the father aiming a bow and arrow at the boy to presumably kill him, when the boy turns around he tries to warn the father about the fast approaching car, which then knocks him down. This shows the audience that regardless what people have said about him and how they treat him; he is still a human and has some respect for the people that judge him. Again this is backed up when it is shown that he helps the father up/looks after him.
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