Group - Justin Bieber analysis

How does a music video provide a platform for an artist to reinvent himself/herself to a target audience?

A music video allows an artist to present himself/herself  through an additional dimension . The visuals that music videos contain help to build the artists meta-narrative.

Justin Bieber has recently reinvented himself and is using his music to help him do so. He has had a stylistic change and we will be discussing two of his new music videos that show the reinvention of the Beeba.

What do you mean? - Justin Bieber

This music video complies with Torodovs theory of music videos being structured like a film. There is a beginning, middle and end to this video. The Beginning - Justin Bieber pays someone to kidnap him and his girlfriend. The Middle - When Bieber and his girlfriend are together, they both get kidnapped by people in masks and are kept captive together in a dark room. The End - Bieber manages to find a way out for him and his girlfriend and they escape. He is hero of the music video.

In this music video, there are scenes of a sexual nature which connotes adulthood and maturity in Bieber. This causes there to be an older feel to the video as Bieber only has one girl who he is in a relationship with opposed to his first videos where there would be many girls surrounding him.

There are many meat shots of Bieber which allows the audience to value his importance and attracts potential fans to watch the video as they are consuming more of him.

In Dyer's theory, he proposes that a star is an image that is constructed and not a real person. A unique construction for Bieber was his haircut. In this video, his old side fringe hair cut is not there and he instead has a different hairdo that is more mature and makes him look older. This helps to reinvent Bieber as a more mature star who can appeal to an wider audience rather than just teenage girls.

Another aspect to Dyer's theory is the stars' character and personality. He believes that stars show what people are supposed to be like. In this video, Bieber conforms to this belief. Bieber is seen as healthy and beautiful and he is also shown as brave as he saves the girl.

Where Are U Now' Skrillex & Diplo with Justin Bieber

• Before we even see or hear the music video, we first register the artists that Justin Bieber is associating himself with. Skrillex and Diplo are the first names we see underlining the YouTube video. The video therefore creates a strong association with Justin Bieber and his new collaborators which have an older, more mature audience than what his previous music attracted.

• The various meat shots centre the video around him. They are a valuable platform for Bieber to reinvent his image on as they not only allow Bieber to give people a close up of his new, more mature haircut, but they also give people an insight into the types of people he works and is trying to associate himself with. The meat shots in the video allow the viewer to see the detailed CGI that went into creating the paint that slowly covers his face. This shows that he is working with creative people, and reflects that he's now far more creative and innovative than he was. It's an attempt to gain more respect and appreciation as a creative and serious artist from his existing and new audiences.
• Dyer's theory that a star is to be present yet not present & ordinary yet extraordinary features very distinctly in this video of Bieber. Beiber is intended to be grounded in relation to his fans by allowing them to draw and annotate on each individual frame in certain parts of the video which shrouds him under layer after layer of colour and drawings. This degree of involvement with fans would only be available via a visual medium such as this. It therefore makes Bieber seem in touch with the people who admire him along with being mysterious, creative and worthy of said admiration.

How can a CD cover provide a platform for an artist to reinvent him/herself?
CD covers can provide a medium in which to present an artist using costume appearance and thoughts feelings and attitude.

• The cover titled "What Do You Mean" delivers to the audience a rhetorical question. This suggests his attitude has matured from a immature teenage boy of naivety to someone who has wider experience of life. His tattoos and checked shirt add to the appearance of him as maturing into a man and appealing to the older audience. The simply black and white cover suggest he has gone back to the basic meanings and true meaning of what he is about taking away the frills. This also appeals to a more mature audience and could reflect in his more insightful meaningful songs of which he has had creative input. This supported by the plain font in which they have used to put emphasis on the meaning of the words. The tattoos and creativity Justin Bieber oozes supports dyers star theory which makes him appeal to a large and loyal audience. His plain T-shirt and hair cut make him oridinardy and extraordinary at the same time.
• The other album cover titled "Where R U Now". Has the same thread as the other cover of a rhetorical question. The fact that half of the title implies the person who wrote it was either illiterate or has no care for standard English and is a rebellious soul fitting in with dyers star theory. The picture on the cover has semiotics of memories and emotions of where he's been and all the experiences he's had with different people. This makes the album cover feel as if it is bigger than one person and the song was inspired by many different people. This enforces the mature and adult approach in which Justin is trying to influence throughout his work turning over a new leaf and reinventing himself.   

CD cover-Justin Bieber

How can a CD cover provide a platform for an artist to reinvent him/herself?

CD covers can provide a medium in which to present an artist using costume appearance and thoughts feelings and attitude.

• The cover titled "What Do You Mean" delivers to the audience a rhetorical question. This suggests his attitude has matured from a immature teenage boy of naivety to someone who has wider experience of life. His tattoos and checked shirt add to the appearance of him as maturing into a man and appealing to the older audience.

• The simply black and white cover suggest he has gone back to the basic meanings and true meaning of what he is about taking away the frills.

• This also appeals to a more mature audience and could reflect in his more insightful meaningful songs of which he has had creative input. This supported by the plain font in which they have used to put emphasis on the meaning of the words.

• The tattoos and creativity Justin Bieber oozes supports dyers star theory which makes him appeal to a large and loyal audience. His plain T-shirt and hair cut make him oridinardy and extraordinary at the same time.
• The other album cover titled "Where R U Now". Has the same thread as the other cover of a rhetorical question.

• The fact that half of the title implies the person who wrote it was either illiterate or has no care for standard English and is a rebellious soul fitting in with dyers star theory. The picture on the cover has semiotics of memories and emotions of where he's been and all the experiences he's had with different people.

• This makes the album cover feel as if it is bigger than one person and the song was inspired by many different people. This enforces the mature and adult approach in which Justin is trying to influence throughout his work turning over a new leaf and reinventing himself.   

M.P: Summer work - Inspirational Music Videos

The band’s style is alternative rock, hard rock. However this feature is not present in this particular song.

• The music video shows the lead singer of the band lip syncing the lyrics. She is shown singing the song whilst playing a guitar as well as just singing with no instruments. In some shots, there is a video projected onto a wall that she leans against. The video that plays is black and white and is of her and her lover making love.

In the music video, aspects of it that I think would be good for my group’s music video would be:

• The projected video on the wall behind – this is a very effective visual
• The video that is projected is in black and white. This causes variation is visuals and is effective in showing different moods and time change and would be a possible idea to use if in our music video we do flashbacks.

The Vaccines - If You Wanna

• The style of the song is Indie Rock
• There is no narrative in this video. The video features the band playing the song on their instruments and singing the lyrics in generic band layout
• The interesting aspect of this video is the use of colour. The band play against  a backdrop screen which changes colour and lighting. This causes us to see the band as silhouettes with the background colour changing. We could perhaps emulate this or take inspiration from this.



 

Birdy - People Help The People

• The style of this song is Pop
• The narrative of this video is of the artist walking around London and there are shots of the people who live in London from different backgrounds and circumstances. There is no major plot or story to this video.
• The video is shot in black and white. This is visually pleasing for the lyrics and style of the music for the song. If we decide to do a slower, more though provoking song, I think making the video black and white is a good idea.
• There are many establishing shots of the surroundings which I would like to emulate. In order to do this, I need to make sure the locations I choose and interesting and visually pleasing.
• She uses pull focus in some shots which is a good way to change the focus on a particular person or object in the music video.
• Some of the shots are slowed down which is effective and I would like to try to emulate in the music video I do as it would show variation in the video.



M.P: Photoshop task

• For our task, we had to create an album cover using Photoshop so we learn how to use it.
• I had taken a photo of my cat and used the quick selection tool to select the head only. I had an idea in my head that I wanted the cat head to merge into something. I found an image of tree on the internet that I thought was a good shape and set it as the background. I then put the cat head into the position I wanted it. At this point the cat head and the tree did not sit well together so I changed the colour to black and white. I then changed the opacity of the cat head to 53%. This made the cat head merge into the tree as if it was part of the tree.
• I called the album “CATreE”. I made it a mixture of upper and lower case letters as it makes it unusual which reflects the album cover on a whole. I changed the fill to 77% so it is more faded and isn’t a sharp white colour. I went through the different fonts and picked the one I liked the best.
• I previously positioned the title on the top left however, I then changed the position to the bottom right. This is because the reading path was wrong. Also the end of the text overlaps the tree which makes it harder to read and detracts attention from the cat in the tree.

M.P: Summer work - Visualising tracks

Three song ideas

 

Florence + The Machine - Hiding

• Narrative
• 2 characters, female and male
• Female is the main character in the video, lip syncing, telling the story
• The male is her boyfriend
• They are in a bad relationship
• Flashbacks of what their relationship used to be like – happy, full of love, excitement
• The flashbacks contrast with the main shots which shows they are no longer happy, he has changed
• The male character is still the whole time, not ever looking at her, as if he is unconscious and not really there.
• The intro instrumental will be of happy times of the couple, e.g. locations = beach, park, looking around sites e.g London
• In some shots, she will be lip syncing the words at him as if she is shouting them because of her frustration.
• At the end of the video, he is still the same and she is still unhappy but not wanting to let go of him.

Peace - Perfect Skin

• Narrative
• A plain looking boy who is stereotypically ‘geeky’
• There is a girl he likes but she is dating a boy who is the complete opposite to him
• Shot of him approaching her but she laughs at him because he is a ‘loser’
• Her boyfriend comes along and he sees how great the boyfriend looks etc.
• The boy she is dating is good looking, not plain, stereotypical ‘cool kid’
• He spies on them and takes notes of what the boyfriend is like
• In the narrative he dresses up in different styles trying to look cooler and dress like the cool guy
• Plain looking boy is the main character – lip syncs the words in some shots
• This video will be light hearted and funny

 

Taylor Swift - Clean
(I was not able to find an official audio for this song, so I have put up a cover of the song which sounds similar to the original)

 

 

 

• Narrative piece
• It will be reflective, the main character will be female who has been in an abusive relationship
• She lip syncs in some of the shots, she is sorting through old photos and belongings of her ex boyfriend and putting it in a box, she looks depressed and sad
• Flashbacks to the abusive relationship where it starts off good then the relationship turns bad
• At the end of the video, she throws the stuff she has put in the box in a fire
• There will be visuals of water and locations used where she is perhaps swimming so it can relate to the metaphor of the songs lyrics

 

 

 

M.P: Music Video Comparison

Music Video Comparison

Begin Again by Taylor Swift (Mainstream)

• This music video is a narrative. Taylor Swift plays the key character who has gone through a bad relationship and the video shows her making a friendship with a man. She goes on a first date with him which shows she is finally getting over her previous love interest and becoming happy again.
• The location of this music video is Paris. She is filmed in various locations, such as one of Paris’ bridge that is made of padlocks. She also is eating in a French café as well as walking around the beautiful quieter streets of Paris. The location of the video causes there to be high production value which is a generic convention of a pop music video.
• In relation to Andrew Goodwin’s theory, there is an amplified relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The videos visuals are creative for example, one of the lyrics is “Take a deep breath in the mirror/He didn’t like it when I wore high heels/ But I do”. These lyrics show a negative side to her previous relationship, and the visual that accompanies this is Swift walking by the river slowly with a sad expression.
• Goodwin also wrote about the notion of looking present. In this video, this feature is included. For example, Swift looks in a mirror meaning we can see her more than once. Goodwin refers to the star image as vital in a music video as the artist will make it more appealing for the consumer. She also is in almost every shot of the music video which is satisfying for the consumer.
• Richard Dyer has a star theory where stars are constructed but not real people. One part of his theory is that stars are both ordinary and extraordinary. Taylor Swift is seen as the girl next door, a young adult who lives in New York and likes to spend time with her family, friends and cats but she has a talent for writing songs and singing which makes her extraordinary.
• Another aspect to Dyer’s theory was that stars and both present and absent. Swift frequently contacts her fans through Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter which makes her present in her fans lives. Her fans may also have various posters and merchandise. However, she is out of reach as she is not actually there.
• Part of Swift’s star image is her Red Lipstick. One of Swift’s motifs is her red lipstick and blonde locks which allows her to be recognisable for consumers. She is also known for her elegant style of clothing which is displayed in this music video.
• Pam Cook had a theory about the structure of the classic narrative system. In this theory, there needs to be a cause and effect and a high degree of narrative closure. In Swift’s video, it does just this. Through the lyrics, we can work out that she has had her heart broken (cause), she then struggles to live normally and go on a date with a new love interest (the effect), the video resolves with her going on a date and feeling happy showing she is finally over her heart break (narrative closure). 
  

   Still by Daughter (Indie Folk)
• 
  The music video is narrative based where it follows a female protagonist who goes home to her husband. However she is unhappy with their relationship. The video shows her preparing to go to bed and it ends with her lying in bed with her husband who pretends to be asleep. They are both unhappy and do not love each other.
• The location of this video is a small flat. This contrasts with Swift’s location of Paris. There is a low production value on this music video.
• Similarly to Swift’s video, the relationship between the lyrics and visuals are amplified.
• The band, daughter, appear in this music video via a TV screen. The TV is on while the narrative is playing out and we sometimes see the TV screen. The leader of the band is seen breaking the fourth wall when she is on the TV.
• In Goodwin’s theory, he also spoke about the treatment of the body. Unlike in Swift’s video, there is a fetishtic treatment of the main characters body. The camera follows the female in the video and there are shots of her wearing minimal clothing and undressing. For example, there is a close up of her upper bare back where we see her tattoo. When we see the artist herself on the TV screen, there is a close up of her lips whilst she lip syncs the words.
• Pam Cook’s theory of narrative system also applies to this video. The narrative shows the couple together unhappily (cause), their marriage is failing and both characters do not love each other (effect), the video ends with the female characters getting in to bed next to her husband despite her feelings towards him (narrative closure). This narrative closure is not as expected and as satisfying as the closure for Swift’s video.