Music Videos Analysis

When asked to write a comparison looking at two different music videos, the videos I chose were ones where I was familiar with the artist therefore have a better understanding of the way in which they perform their art. The two videos are ‘Invincible by Tinie Tempah Ft. Kelly Rowland’ and the other is ‘Last Friday Night by Katy Perry’.
The first thing that is important to look at in a music video is what type of video it is whether it is concept, narrative or performance. Both of my videos were dominant in the performance element however in some ways both showed signs of a narrative by telling a story. Tinie’s story of his success and achievements through several fast pace straight cuts and Katy by the idea of telling us how she woke up to find people in her bed and looking different after the Friday night before; it retells us what happened on that Friday night. Features that tell me they are performance is by the way in which both artist sing to the camera addressing the audience with the use of close up’s and mid shots and are mainly if not always shown throughout the video displaying their outfits and postures. However although the type of video is the same the genre of music is very different. The track by Tinie Tempah is classed as ‘RnB’, this is because he raps through alot of the song, the lighting is much darker in places with darker colouring, the imagery is based more in a built up urban area. Whereas the Katy Perry hit is ‘Pop’ as its very upbeat, fast, colourful and several different costume changes are made.
If we look at the Tinie Tempah video and the idea of the notion of looking there isn’t much on display in terms of voyeuristic view and male gaze because the video is purely based on him and his success, right from the beginning it runs through places he has been or concerts he has done, for example; T4, V Festival, St Paul’s Academy and shows an award show as well. The only female reference we get is Kelly Rowland but that is just a close up of her face only reflected onto buildings which is known as graphic matching. The video is done in many ways to represent the support that is shown by the fans, through education; going into schools, by followers of him at concerts and by people who vote for him along with his listeners to win him a music award and get his single to number one. Whereas the video created by Katy Perry is much more representative of young people who like to party, flirt, get drunk and have a laugh. It is therefore much more aimed at an audience of teenagers who can relate to these issues. The women in the video including Katy show exhibitionism but there is male gaze that takes place within the video with the ‘jock’ and the ‘geek’ liking what they see from Katy. For example when she walks down the stairs at 3:05mins the ‘jock’ at the party is amazed by her new image which is helped by the way in which the camera slowly tilts from high angle to low angle along her body. Costume and props are key in this video as she starts off as a geek with a head brace and turns into a party girl with lots of make-up and little clothing which shows how people can change when going to a party and trying to impress other people. However in Tinie’s video the actors and lighting hold dominance due to the lights focusing brighter on him and his crowds and the actors being the people he meets in classrooms; 0:52mins and when touring.
The relationship between visuals and the lyrics in both pieces display a sense of amplifying because in Tinie Tempah’s video key exciting moments happen during his chorus’s for example at 2:48mins it shows him at one of his biggest concerts displayed by an extreme long shot showing the capacity of the crowd and the height of Kelly Rowland’s voice makes the moment more special. As with Katy Perry’s video where, for example at 3:05mins when she is coming down the stairs with slow motion and a tilting shot, it is a changing point because she has transformed a great deal and the music becomes louder as it enters the chorus. The lyrics do not fit so well with the ‘Invincible’ video so therefore showing disjuncture because the words are linked with love and his video isn’t based around love however ‘Last Friday Night’ lyrics do fit because most of what she talks about we see happening in the video which is why I feel there are elements of narrative in there.
Looking at star image motifs the thing that stands out largely with Tinie Tempah are his glasses. They are his signature symbol so to speak and in the majority if not all his videos his black tinting Ray Bans or similar ones are worn by him which links this video well with others produced by him. Also linking to this star is the use of his other singles being shown in the video, the graphic match from the start of ‘Pass out’ is given and also at 2:13mins when ‘Pass out’ is announced as number one in the charts which is shown through running strip along the bottom of the screen and a long/mid shot of Tinie when he hears news. With Katy Perry however she doesn’t have a something that is reoccurring throughout her videos other then the large fun performance that she always displays throughout along with the make-up she wears in each video being brightly coloured.
With both videos based around performance it is helpful to look out where they are performed and how realistic they are. The video by Tinie Tempah is set in many difference places and is very realistic. We see this from the different places that the camera takes us to in a series of fast-cut montage such as actual events and times in his life that fans can relate to knowing they happened. The use of graphic matching and special effects are much greater in this video which fits the RnB genre and gives something more to the video that we wouldn’t get if we were just listening to the song. Although in the Katy Perry video the setting is in fewer places like her bedroom, the room where the party is and also outside where the party then goes to. Some parts of it are realistic in the sense that house parties do happen and things do get messy but the way in which she is transformed and the close ups we see of how the people from the party ended up in her room are not so realistic. The costumes in both are realistic and the pace of the camera in ‘Last Friday Night’ is also realistic and fits in with the time of day and order of narrative. However with ‘Invincible’ the pace of camera is much faster and flicks between scenes showing the genre with the pace of him rapping to the music.
There a little intertexual references with the Tinie Tempah hit but what is shown is connections with concerts and studios along with schools/the academy he visited which are all mainly displayed through a mixture of mid and long shots to set us the scene. With the Katy Perry hit there are again few references with one dominant standing out which is the ‘Just Dance’ game that is played by Katy during the party at 3:19mins. Also you could say that with the music it changes to a different beat when dancing and then a man is visible playing a saxophone at 3:58mins which shows the music being played in the video. Also with this video is the other actors that are in it such as Rebecca Black who is also a singer and Kevin McHale who plays ‘Artie’ in the hit series ‘Glee’.
Having looked at both videos in more detail it is clear to work out what makes them performance and what separates their genres. ‘Invincible-Tinie Tempah Ft. Kelly Rowland’ is performance based because he does address the audience several times with close ups when singing and he is shown in the video the majority of the time, much like ‘Last Friday Night-Katy Perry’ because she also acts out the video like it is a film and sings and dances for the camera throughout the piece; she is always visible. The videos differ in that ‘Invincible’ is RnB and ‘Last Friday Night’ is more dance/pop. This is because the RnB style piece is recognised by the greater use of special effects, deeper sounds and rapping and darker colouring with a setting that is more urban and city-like. The pop style is much more active, dance, colourful and bright make-up and costume and more of an acting based creation. Without the video being made for ‘Invincible’, although misleading because the lyrics don’t match, we wouldn’t have been shown just how successful he is and what he has achieved already in his career. We don’t really need the video as much for the Katy Perry song because the lyrics tell us the story and we can picture what the scene would look like, that is what makes the RnB style so contrasted.