MVid EG3: Tove Lo - Disco Tits

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO:1. The use of colour correction - purple, pink colour correction (vibrant colours)
2. The use of slow motion 
3. The on and off use of cutting to the beat
4. The deconstructionist element (e.g. in costume)

Act: Tove Lo
Track: Disco Tits
Year: 2017
Director: Tim Erem
Genre: electropop 
Main Audience: Females (16-24)

There are 11 shots in the first 30 seconds. This estimates that each shot lasts 2.7 seconds.
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There is frequent use of low key lighting in this music video. At some points, colour correction/colour gels are used. This is a stereotypical convention of the electropop genre. 

Dennis McQuail's 'Uses and Gratifications' can be applied within this music video. Three of the gratifications are present: personal identity, personal relationship and diversion/escapism. Females aged 16-24 can identify with the female singer, Tove Lo since she is the main protagonist in her video. This overlaps with John Berger's 'ways of seeing', which suggests that men act and women appear within the media - this implies that men have an active role in the media while women only have a passive role. This music video counteracts/goes against this theory by having a female as the main protagonist. Tove Lo has an active role in the music video by being the main female protagonist who leads the narrative.  

Close Up of artist, Tove Lo lip syncing in the video

Andrew Goodwin argued that there are 6 key features/conventions of music videos, this theory does apply to this music video. These 6 conventions are: genre characteristics, frequent close ups of the artist, the notion of looking, intertextual references, relationship between lyrics and visuals and finally the relationship between the music and the visuals. There are frequent close ups of the artist lip syncing in this music video. Also, there are many electropop genre characteristics shown throughout such as colour correction, striking costumes. There is also a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals for example when Tove Lo sings "Nipples are hard, ready to go" you see shots of Tove Lo dancing caressing her chest. 

I have also seen other videos which have frequent use of colour correction such as Halsey's 'Ghost', Astrid S's 'Such A Boy', VENIOR's 'Sugar Rush' and Hayley Kiyoko's 'Cliff's Edge'. All these videos are in the electropop genre. 

There is a lot of crude language and sexual imagery in this video; quite cleverly, a muppet character was used as the male partner to be able to get away with the sexual imagery and language. If a male human was used instead, there would have been obvious censorship issues. It has been signified through costume and body language, that Tove Lo is quite brallous. 

Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' is exploited in this music video, through the costume that Tove Lo is wearing (a white short ribbed crop top), she isn't wearing a bra so you can see her nipples through the top. Also, you can denote that Tove Lo and the male character in the music video are performing sexual activities such as foreplay. There is one scene within the music video where Tove Lo is wearing just underwear - a pink bra with a red heart on each nipple. This piece of costume is deconstructionist and polysemic because the red colour of the hearts has sexual connotations and the heart shapes have playful innocent romantic connotations. You can also denote Tove Lo making a 'moaning face' several times throughout which further exploits this 'male gaze'. At the same time the 'male gaze' theory can be undermined in this video by the use of low-key lighting, the tattoos on her arms, punches the muppet in the video, has minimal make-up (for example, she is not wearing bright glossy lipstick), is wearing a nose hoop and her hair is messy - these things all de-glamourise, de-sexualise and masculinise her, providing a counter-normative feminine representation. Tove Lo is refusing to 'perform' gender (Judith Butler). Low key lighting is quite a countertypical thing to see in an electropop music video. Usually in electropop, the singer is made to look heavily glamourised (the skin is especially glamorised). The nose hoop she is wearing connotes rebellion and refusal to conform.    

There is only one take (at the end) which lingers on the male character for longer than a second, it lingers on him for 5 seconds. It is a shot of Tove Lo driving with him into the distance. Also, the fact that she is the one driving the roofless car throughout the music video also signifies how she is pushing against the normative representation of females in relationships or even of females in a car with a man (that females don't do the driving if a man is there). 

I also think the Bechdel test can be reflected on in this video. The Bechdel Test is a test to see whether a film has at least 2 female characters who have a name and talk about something other than a man. I think this music video passes the Bechdel test because Tove Lo leads the narrative on, she is actively deciding what is happening in the video, controlling what is going on (e.g. makes the muppet go down on her, makes the muppet dance with her). She also punches the muppet in the video and uses foul language which connotes that she is in control and that she is an assertive strong female who has taken on masculine attributes, which again pushes against the normative representation of females being weak, emotional and submissive. Although, there are some shots which specifically objectify Tove Lo which you could say goes against the idea that she is in control deciding things because the director probably would have decided on there to be objectifying shots within the video. 











colour correction connoting states of drug use
making colouring explicitly related to drugs 
club listening - colour correction - drug taking 

illustrating, amplifying the lyrics - cuts show her chest at that point 
classic example - is she a feminist or a post feminist - classic objectifying material 
quite direct 

the human in early 20's - ragged stubble - long hair 
male character is wearing similar clothes to her - dancing is similar - hair similar - gender fluidity - refusal to perform gender
the equivalence in clothing mise-en-scene - reflecting 
no lingering on the guy - short takes 
she is looking in the mirror - body movement - framing - perfect for a GIF 
framing  - she is on right one time then she is on the left he is on the left then he is on the right - playing around with gender fluidity - elements of discontinuity - not really in face - because of the visual similarity 
180 degree rule spitting in it's face 

ghosting effect - 2 layers stacked up - opacity change - one is infront of the other 
cuts to beat - don't cut to the beat continuously
ghosting - repetitive but useful effect - repeat effects 

vernallis - flashing effect with cut jump cut - super zoom in - uh uh uh uh - very long take - good little section 

bridging shot of the interior of the bar and the interior of the room - they don't show the interior of the room straight away they show a CU of her 

(teen tween notion)

at the end only take which lingers on him - 5 seconds 

MVid EG1: Astrid S - Such A Boy

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES:
1. The excessive use of colour correction and colour gels (for lighting - colourful lighting). 
3. The locations e.g. indoor in a bathroom, in a bowling alley, in a bedroom, at a party full of people.

Act: Astrid S
Track: Such A Boy
Year: 2017
Director: 
Genre: Electropop
Main Audience: Females (15-24)

There are 18 shots in the first 30 seconds. That estimates that each shot lasts 1.6 seconds. 
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There is frequent use of colour correction and colourful lighting (created with colour gels) in this music video. I am really inspired to use this for my music video, I really like it. 

Andrew Goodwin's '6 conventions of music videos' can apply to this music video. There are frequent close up shots used of the singer, Astrid S lip syncing. There are also frequent electro pop genre signifiers used such as the excessive colour correction/colourful lighting (created with colour gels). 

Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' can be somewhat exploited in this video because of how the artist is glamourised throughout with either pink lipstick or lipgloss, lilac nail varnish, black mascara, either silver earrings studs or bangles, foundation, blusher and black eyeshadow. You can denote that her eyebrows are plucked and shaped nicely also. The pink lighting on her for example at the start as you can see in the image on the left, helps to further glamorise her and make her appear very feminine. The shot on the left is of a boy about to kiss the artist's neck which is not something which would attract a young tween audience but instead, an older teen audience aged 16-25.

There are also many shots of the artist showing her shoulders in thin strapped tops/dresses. She is also a white caucasian blonde female so this is a normative representation of females. She also has mid-length long hair which further enforces this normative representation. Later on in the video you see a close up two shot high angled shallow field of focus shot of Astrid S looking in direct audience address with the boy in the background out of focus. In this shot she is wearing a thin strapped pink ribbed tight dress which shows her cleavage - this is clear evidence of the 'male gaze' theory being exploited. 

She is also eating candy floss at the same time - the fact that she is looking in direct address while biting into something has sexual connotations, therefore glamourising and sexualising Astrid S which can attract a male audience. It also signifies that her audience are not young (e.g. tweens aged 10-13) but instead they are young adults aged 16-25. However, the candyfloss element could be considered as an attempt to create a playful vibe to the music video which could therefore attract a younger audience (aged 13-15).

You could say the 'female gaze' is also being exploited in this video due to the high key colourful lighting clearly glamorising the male character as you can see in this image below.

The boy is sucking on something or has something slightly in his mouth in the lower image, the female gaze being exploited because this is a sexualised pose that you see male models do for modelling images - as you can see here in this example on the right for this 'Spicebomb' perfume. There is lighting coming from many different angles in this image on the lower right, to create a glamourised effect on the facial features and skin. For example you can see some sections of the face are dark blue and some are pink. The jaw/neck, which is a glamorised feature of the male face, has clearly been purposely lighted a different colour to the rest of the face. 
This boy character is being glamorised and sexualised by being in this pose which connotes that the Astrid S's (the artist) audience is not young but instead is older teens (aged 16-25). 




There is also use of direct personal address in the video from the singer, Astrid S. This creates a personal connection between the artist and audience/fans. This is a common convention of music videos of any genre. While she is with her lover character in the video she is looking at the audience while the lover character is looking at her or doing something to her like kiss her neck. 

I also noticed this technique/effect was used in Astrid S's music video for 'bloodstream'. This makes the audience really empathise with her and relate to what is going on in the video, this can be tied nicely with Dennis McQuail's 'Uses and Gratifications theory' - the personal identity gratification is relevant here - the female audience members at a similar age to Astrid S (aged 20) or younger (aged 16-18) can relate and identify with Astrid S. 

MVid EG3: The 1975 - Sex

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO:
1. The trippy colours used. 
2. The use of naturalistic locations. 
3. The footage of the teen characters doing naturalistic teenage activities.
4. The footage of the teen couple kissing, touching each other and on top of each other. 
5. The performance footage of the band. 

Adam Powell (2013)
Act: The 1975
Track: Sex
Genre: indie rock
Main Audience: Females and Males (16-24)

The first 30 seconds consists of dialogue with 4 shots. From 0:30 to 1:00, there are 19 shots. This estimates that each shot lasts 1.6 seconds. 
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There narrative to this music video is non-linear, the end is at the start where the male character gets caught by the police. 

There is a mix of narrative and performance footage in this video, so, Simon Perth's performance, concept and narrative theory can be applied here. There are shots of the band performing with instruments such as electric guitar, drum kit, this all creates verisimilitude for the video. The narrative footage blurs with the performance footage at points for example when the band perform around the couple having sex/on top of each other kissing on a worn out discoloured mattress. 

There is very naturalistic colour correction to almost no colour correction used at all in this music video with a slightly grainy effect on all the footage. This effect has been used to connote the naturalistic and gritty side of the video. The 1975 band has an already existing branding which consists of the colours black and white, smoking cigarettes, wearing black dark clothing, having tattoos, wearing doc martens etc. They have quite a grungy, dark, gritty style, similar to Arctic Monkeys. 

There is also a lot of nudity (female nudity) within this video and mature, explicit inappropriate behaviour such as smoking weed and having sex. 

I believe this video would get an 18 age rating from the BBFC. When you watch this video on YouTube, the vevo age verification screen comes up where you have to confirm that you are 18 years old or older.  

MVid EG2: Halsey - Ghost

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCES FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO:
1. The coloured lighting, neon colours, pastel colours 
2. The slow motion effect on the characters moving. 
3. The costumes used in the video e.g. the blue bob wig, pink bob wig, red lipstick, choker, black eyeshadow, black eyeliner etc. 

Malia James (2015)
Act: Halsey
Track: Ghost
Genre: electropop 
Main Audience: Females (13-24)

There are 11 shots in the first 30 seconds. This estimates that each shot lasts 2.7 seconds.
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At the start of the video, there is a medium long shot/long shot of a city with high skyscrapers and lots of banners everywhere with Chinese writing on. This denotes the setting to be urban and a 'big city' perhaps in the country of China or Japan. However, the location hasn't been intentionally anchored, it has been left as polysemic with asian signifiers through chinese script. The issue here is globalisation - where is this city - this is a city anywhere - not western or eastern which is an aspect of representation and post modernism, a refusal to accept a certain reality - any place any reality. 

There is use of a diegetic title at the start of the video. This title is the track title. There is also another title which is the track title 'Ghost' translated in Chinese. 

Andrew Goodwin argued that there are 6 features of music videos, these can be seen in this video. These are: frequent close ups of artist, genre characteristics, relationship between lyrics and visuals, relationship between music and visuals, the notion of looking and intertextual references. First of all, there is frequent use of close ups of the artist, Halsey in this video. 

There are electropop genre characteristics in this video such as the use of bright neon, primary colours throughout (created through colour gel lighting and colour correction) and the iconic, flamboyant costumes seen which are a light blue wig, a light pink wig, a choker, bright red lipstick and heavy black eye make-up.



Laura Mulvey's male gaze' is somewhat exploited in this music video through the close ups and medium close up shots at the start of the video of Halsey and another girl's body. They are heavily glamourised through the use of high key lighting, sometimes with the use of colour gels and also colour correction. This is one of the key conventions of the electropop genre (colour correction, SFX, use of colour gels). I am influenced by this video to use colour gels for lighting in my music video on the lip syncing footage of the singer and on some of the narrative shots. 

In terms of the Uses and Gratifications theory (Dennis McQuail), 3 of the gratifications apply here. Personal identity, personal relationship and diversion. Females aged 15-24 are able to identify with the female main protagonist, Halsey, in this music video. The same gratifications will apply to my music video. 

There is a playful post modern deconstructionist pomo aspect to this video due to the fact that the two female main protagonists look very similar because of the wig 'bobs' they are wearing, one is wearing a short bob pink wig, the other is wearing a short bob light blue wig. The first scene is where this is most evident. The editing choice of this first scene tricks/challenges the viewer and gets them confused as to which female is Halsey (the singer/artist). At one point Halsey is on the right while kissing and touching the other girl and then at another point Halsey is on the left side instead. This confusion is also created through the shot choices - through, for example the side on close up two shots of the two female characters, it is very hard to distinguish which female protagonist/character is Halsey. 

Also, it is clearly denoted that the narrative and performance have been blurred. Halsey is blurring the narrative and performance. The same colour correction is used on the lip syncing footage of the singer and the narrative footage of Halsey with the other female character. However, in the narrative shots, Halsey has a short light blue bob but in the performance shots, has significantly longer light blue hair. Halsey's bob hair in the narrative shots matches the hair of the other female character in the video intentionally.

In terms of editing style, a slow motion effect has been used on all of the footage. This creates a flowing effect. 

Information on electropop genre music video conventions gathered:
1. Use of colour correction, colour gels in lighting to look colourful 
2. Flamboyant costumes - colourful, vibrant costumes

MVid EG2: Chase Atlantic - Swim

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO:
1. The clothing and hairstyles of the trio. 
2. The club location with lots of flashing and colourful lights. 
3. The purple colour correction used on the outdoor footage on the cliff. 
4. The drone shots of the rocks in the ocean and the settings. 
5. The diegetic titles at the start for the artist name and the track name. 
6. The diegetic titles of some of the lyrics of the song.  
7. The editing style - cutting to the beat 
8. The flashing effect on the footage. 

Act: Chase Atlantic 
Track: Swim
Year: 2017
Genre: Hip Hop, Electronic
Main Primary Audience: Females and Males (15-24)
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Throughout this music video, you can see multiple costume changes from the artist. 

You can also see in this video, many locations used, for example, at the start of the video the artist trio stands on a cliff, then later you see shots of the lead singer of the trio in a club setting. 

This music video has a title at the start with the artist's name - 'Chase Atlantic'. There is also a title before that which warns the audience/viewer that this video has a lot of flashing image and can be harmful to people with epilepsy. This is become quite an important thing to do lately, informing the viewer about the video in case they have epilepsy. 


For this music video, Simon Ferth's 'Narrative, Performance, Concept' theory can be somewhat applied. However, in this video you can only mainly see solely performance from the artist. There is no narrative evident in this video. 




Andrew Goodwin's 6 conventions or features of music videos theory can be reflected in this music video example. There are multiple genre signifiers of hip hop such as the dancing footage of the artist, the style of dancing has a lot of hip hop connotations. The second convention he states is that there is a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. As you can see in the image below, there is an animation of pills raining down - this appears on screen on the lyric line of the track "Pop a couple pills in the daytime". 

The main thing to note about this music video is the frequent use of special effects or SFX. As you can see on the right, there is an animation within the video of pills falling down like rain. Also in the image above on the left, there is use of layering over a shot of a human prototype and a medium shot of the lead singer of the trio, heavy purple colour correction, glitch effect and a human prototype animation. This combination creates quite a striking visual as you can see.  

There is also a very fast editing pace and striking editing style for the video. The visuals on screen cut to the beat of the song and there is a flashing effect used on the footage and the transitions between shot takes.     

MVid EG1: Somewhere Else - Move Together

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO:
1. The different coloured lighting, e.g. lilac, purple, dark blue lighting
2. The narrative of a teenage couple living together in a small apartment doing what teenage couples do e.g. kissing, looking at social media on their phones, chilling out on a sofa in a living room, listening to music through speakers, dancing.
3. Fast pace editing
4. Close up shots of body, couple touching each other,
5. The water on skin idea.

Somewhere Else - Move Together (feat Majid Jordan)

Helmi (2016)

Act: Somewhere Else (feat. Majid Jordan)
Track: Move Together
Genre: Electronic
Music Video Length: 03:23
Target Audience: Male and Female Teens (15-24)

Somewhere Else is an electronic hip hop artist that is not very well known at all. This music video for Somewhere Else's only song, Move Together, is directed by Helmi. 

There are 18 shots in the first 30 seconds. This would estimate that each shot lasts 1.6 seconds. 

Music Video:


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There is an intertitle at the start of this music video which is the artist logo. This is common to see in the opening shot. 







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The opening shot is a two shot of two teenagers, female and male. They are sitting far apart to connote there is a distance between them. The fact that they are on their phones connotes that they are bored together. 

There is heavy use of special effects in this music video. Firstly, there is use of 360 degree, anticlockwise camera movements. These camera movements are used to create a 'trippy' drug vibe to the video and connote a drug influenced state. 

Secondly there is heavy use of colour correction and colourful lighting used in the video with colours such as purple, red, blue, green. 

There is also use of animation in this video - there are hundreds of naked human prototypes of the two main protagonists. They touch, kiss and feel up each other. It is clearly denoted that the human prototypes are the two characters we see at the start touching and getting sexual with each other.