Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Second music video textual analysis


The second video I am going to look at is Bad Romance - Lady GaGa.

Bad Romance is taken off Lady GaGa's album 'The Fame Monster'. The song was written by Lady GaGa and produced by Redone who produces most of the artists songs. Bad Romance was released on the 25th October 2009.

Bad Romance is composed in a similar tempo as most of the artists other songs, it has sing and tell verses and a full mouthed chorus, the song talks about the good points of a bad romance and also references to Alfred Hitchcock are made throughout the song ('I want your psycho, your vertigo stick, baby your sick). The location for the video is a white bathhouse, the artist is being held hostage by a group of supermodels. The supermodels drug her and appear to sell her off as a sex slave.

The song was written whilst GaGa was on tour in 2008, the song is about the paranoia's the artist faced whilst on tour. One of those was a love monster who inspired Bad Romance.

The 'Ra-Ra...' start to the song is similar to GaGa's song Poker Face. The song starts off with GaGa singing 'Ra-Ra...' followed by the sound of drum beats and a keyboard. The chorus is full throated and the bridges are all in a sing and tell format.

The lyrics talk about the joys of being in a bad romance and exploring the joys of been in a bad romance, this idea of a bad romance then changes during the bridge where GaGa is singing about fashion (Walk Walk Fashion Baby). The references to Alfred Hitchcock in the song are ''I want your psycho, your vertigo stick, Want you in my rear window''. Psycho, Vertigo and Rear Window are all films made by Alfred Hitchcock.

The video was directed by film director Francais Lawrence. The idea behind the video is that GaGa has being kidnapped by supermodels who plan to sell her to the Russian Mafia. The video starts off with GaGa sitting on white throne, wearing a golden dress. GaGa has her finger on iPod speakers and as soon as she presses play Bad Romance starts to play. Sunlight starts to pan across the walls of the bathhouse activating the fluorescent lightening , a sign is shown with the words 'Bath Haus of GaGa' written on it. A group of dancers crawl out of white egg shaped pods. The centre pod has the word 'Monster' written all over it, Lady GaGa emerges from this pod wearing a similar outfit to her dancers. As the chorus of the song starts up, the dancers grab hold of GaGa and force vodka down her throat. As the second verse starts, GaGa is seen wearing a diamond encrusted outfit dancing for a group of men, the group of men all make bids for her. As the chorus starts for a third time, a man is seen sat on the bed unbuttoning his shirts and GaGa walks towards to him. GaGa is seen taking off her jacket and sunglasses, the bed then suddenly combusts with the man still start on it. The video ends with Lady GaGa sat near a skeleton.
The video uses a range of different conventions such as;
the video has a narrative structure, the lyrics are interpreted in the music video. The video also has a performance structure, both the dancers and the artist perform a dance routine within the music video.
The artist is the main focus of this music video, close up shots are used to show that she is the main focus.
A notion of looking is used, the dancers and the artist are in some revealing costumes at different points in the video.
The audience can gain virostic pleasure from watching this video as they can watch the artist without the artist actually knowing that the audience are watching.

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