Thursday 30 September 2010

6.Video Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2smz_1L2_0&ob=av2e Lady Gaga's Paparazzi. "Well I'm so glad there are a few different interpretations, that was the idea. The song is about a few different things – it's about my struggles, do I want fame or do I want love? It's also about wooing the paparazzi to fall in love with me. It's about the media whoring, if you will, watching ersatzes make fools of themselves to their station. It's a love song for the cameras, but it's also a love song about fame or love – can you have both, or can you only have one?"- Lady Gaga.










Prolouge. I love everything about this video. The camera work in the beginning is simple but effective with the first shot fading in from a circle, effectively making the video seem like a real movie, with shohts and close ups of the flowers and an establishing shot of her character's house. I say character as in each of her videos she plays a different persona with a different message to tell. This is shown through the narrative of the music video(s) she has made, this song being about the papparazi and linking to her album title 'The Fame', shows Gaga being creative at her best with the other main character being her 'boyfriend'. Both the song and the video represent how she feels about the paparazzi and how it can ruin a 'Star's' life by them always being around. The audience automatically recognise this music video has been made like a film as the time bar is '7:11' minutes long and after the shots of her home, there is a close up shot with the visual effect of credits saying 'A Serial Pictures Production'. These shots set the mood for the video at the start light hearted and Romantic with the roses around and the scenic sounds and shot of the water fountain, dissolving into a shot of the chandelier. The mise-en-scene creates a picturesque mood for the start of the viedo. It also says who it's starring which of course is Lady Gaga and the diagetic sounds sets the scene as being in like a real film and not just a music video. As the camera shots explore the house, there are close ups and pans of the room that Gaga is in, with diamonds and moey scattered around, representing she is rich and a famous celebrity and a stereotypical view upon rich stars having lots of money however this money has her face on it represnting to the audience that she attracts that she is like royalty. Or the new 'Queen of Pop' which could be a sarcastic message towards the media and anti Gaga representatives slating her over the contreversial arguement of Gaga being like Madonna.The font type is like the broadway credits at the end of a big film or theatre production and all the more glamorises Gaga and the character that she plays life. Another part of this video which could go unnoticed is the fact that it isn't shown on a 'normal' camera screen, instead, it is cropped round the edges like a rounded square, looking like the old reels of film the were around when silent movies were made. The two character's on the bed are Lady Gaga herself and her 'boyfriend' and are talking in french, all the more creating a glamorous and romantic setting with the language of love. The subtitles are important with matching the shot as when her boyfriend says 'Come here', there is a close up of Lady Gaga's money which is hers as she has made it herself, the narrative could be seen as him only being with her for the money, and as the story goes on, the audience recognise this is correct s the balcony scene is photographed through the camera and he is looking around, aware that the cameras are there. Arguably, the use of the character's body language and occulesics (being so aware) could be that the story of the boyfriend is that he could have set up the paparazzi to be there to witness this event. This then ultimately makes it seem like the male figure wanted to make some money (patriarchy of dominant roles?) by interviews etc. with the paprazzi, but by pushing his 'Girlfriend' from the balcony. This could create a mening of Gaga's foolishness in the story and a side of her persona the is portrayed as innocent as she trusts the man she was with (Do you love me?)(DO you trust me? - 'Of course') However throughout the video, the audience are only seeing this 'story' from one point of view being Lady Gaga's. So the story of the boyfriend's background and how he leads his life is unknown as we only see parts him in the viedo. Whilst the pictures are being taken, the camera sound effects are sped up and increased in pitch to relflect the intensity of the situation and the danger that she is n which like a film, will reel the audience into the story which is smething that my group plan to do with our music video of her song 'Monster'. There are shots in the video of newspaper articles with Lay Gaga on the front page, 'Gaga at the top Again' reflectng the major influence on the song and the video of the press and the media and shots of her by the paparazzi. This conveys the meaning of stars in the media world in both positive and negative ways. As she is falling from the bacony, there is a shot of the boyfriend standing over her. He then walks away. As Gaga falls, there is a backdrop of a moving spiral downwards, like in Alice in Wonderland as she falls down the Rabbit hole. This could convey a meaning of confusion and the circle of paparazzi and publicity and fame and it gets faster an faster as she falls to the ground (a papaer stated 'Gaga Hit Rock Bottom') and you can hear soundeffects of a heartbeat and heavy breathing, representing the she is hurt. The first few chords of the song are introduced with speech of Paparazzi "BEAUTIFUL" , this then shatters a she falls. The click sound effect of the cameras is a motif used throughout the video and reflecting o her thoughts and the song meaning about pleasing the Paparazzi and making them fall in love with her, which is shown through her on the ground and the cameras crowding over her. In the papaer that says 'Lady no more Gaga', the picture starts moving in sepia the zooms into the picture into full screen and colour (visual effects) almost as if the whole video is described in the newspaper, which is the biggest influence in the media. The costumes used in these different shots and scenes are creative and match the narrative, ie. i nthe beginning she is wearing white, ultimately showing her innocence/naivety and trust in the man she loves, and after she is carried out of the limo, (black costume with a red neckbrace and nurse's cross). Colour/make-up and props are important in this video (like the wheelchair/cameras) for the message she is presenting to her audience, many people beive from the lyrics and the video that 'her boyfriend is using her fame to climb to the top of the social ladder. He destroys her career (see when she is pushed off the balcony, her body lies limp and crushed, because her career is dead) and gets away with it. She then has to rebuild her career (learning to walk again) slowly but surely, and stages a comeback. In the end, she poisons her boyfriend and kills him, getting revenge for ruining her. She becomes a pop icon once more.' http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858733659/#

The message of Gaga learning to walk again is reflected with the costume she is wearing and th assistance of getting out of the car and on crutches, howeverthere is a still an element of fame and stardown as there is a long purpple rug on the floor (although not being the classic red, still shows she is famous in some way). The dancers are there to assist her and relfects a dependance as they help to change her into another costume ( a gold suit - quite resrticting material, like her black PVC leotard whilst on the sofa- could be a meaning of outer body experience?). As the confetti falls, this could resmeble the death of her old career or the start of her new career.

The dance routines used in the video are flowing which reflect the use of body movement which essentially helps Lady Gaga become mobile again and an emphasis on the body (bare skin/facial expression/hands/Lips) also contribute to this.

In many shots there are models laying on the floor or in different places around the house which appear to be dead as they do not move, could be previous women Gaga's boyfriend had been with. These shots are slow and focused on that person with maybe a staggered shot of close up and long shots, whereas the rest of the camerawork throughout the video is fast paced to reflect the situation Gaga is in. There are also other women on the sofa where Gaga is seen on her own, which could be seen as sattire to the media and the Paparazzi that question her sexuality as she is kissing them.

The dance routine now with Lady Gaga represents a triumph in launcing essentially what is her 'new' career and the costumes here are important as they show two sides of Gaga one side dressed and the other simple which could reflect again the death of her old career and the start of the new one as the skirts and the frills are black and gothic looking.

Gaga is then shown in a room, dressed like a bird (or an animal) to reflect her being in the media again and having publicty as the shots are fast and flashing to represent the camera, which including the costume and the dogs could represent the fat that most stars and celerities are 'trapped' and treated like animals as they can't just be 'normal'.

The ending of the video is essentially Gaga poisining her boyfriend and gaining revenge for what he did to her career and to arguably the other's aswell. I love the part where the audience can hear her owning up to the police 'I just Killed my boyfriend' ultimately making her in the press and becoming a hero again.

This video has many mixed messages and interpretations and I think this could have been one of Lady Gaga's intentions and the purpose of the video and the song.


Gwen Stefani's 'What You Waiting For?'

Like Lady Gaga's videos, I love this song an the vidoe for Gwen Stefani. Throughout her solo career, her videos have had a them e of harejuku girls in them, like the theme for Lady Gaga and her many dancer's and their routines.

The outline narrative to this video is at first Gwen Stefani being pestered by her agent to write a new song 'They're all waiting for your hot track'. She can't concentrate and is putting it off, refelcted in the mood at the beginning where the camera was focused and fixed on just Gwen and not as fast paced when the story unfolds. She has to find 'Inspiration' which arguably, could be what the song is about also. As she tried to wrtie, she attends a writer's block class where she is questioned etc. (as if she was ill) and then finds a toy. As she looks at it, she is put back into the room where she was originally with just her piano, and a ticking watch. Then the first chords are introduced to the video 'Tick Tock', which represents Gwen's pressure into making a song and the title says it all 'What you Waiting for?'. Arguably, this could be reaching out to other song writer's or even journalist's as we all at time don't know what we're waiting for when we're procrasting! I have chose to analyse a Gwen Stefani video as her and Lady Gaga are very similar and it shows through Gwen also being in the band 'No Doubt' that they both came form similar music scenes and then becoming solo.

It sends out a message of being lost and daydreaming or going on a tangent! The clock connotes to the white Rabbit's in Alice in Wonderland, and she got their because of her curiousness! Well Gwen wanted to find 'inspiration' and she found it in a daydream.

Again the Harejuku girls are used straight away (as the nurse also) linking to previous videos she has done before and talking as if directly to Gwen inside her head. The audience recognise straight away that this is meant to be Alice in Wonderland themed as you have all the character's and mise-en-scene and camera editing (her being large) to reflect her daydreaming. As the camera shoots from Gwen in the real world and then straight back to her dressed as Alice with a cloudy effect around her representing a daydream. The chair she was sitting on in the real worl also is shown in 'Alice's' showing that thats how she got there (slow motion of the chair and clock) and how ALice herself from the film landed in Wonderland. We are introduced to the characters, the Harajuku girl being the white rabbit and Gwen as the characer of Alice and we see Tweedle dum and Tweedle dee (recogninsed by the same outfits and talking to eachother) The Queen, (by her hedges) and the caterpillar! These are all culturally agreed and recognised symbols and character's from a well known fictional world and the audience can realte to this as they know the story and what it is like to be in another place whilst trying to stay focus! However the audience still see that she is trying to make a song as it goes back to the room where she is recording and we can still see the microphone and the piano. As she is singing, the song is forming itself and the lyrics appear on the book as a visual effect. Other Visual effects include the Gold cloudy lines around the characers from the sun and the pink rain from the sky. This is relevant to Alice crying and so does Gwen with the again effects of the palace being flooded and Gwen not being able to swim in the swimming pool (sink or swim? could either make her career or break it if she doesn't come up with a song). This links to the ideo fo Alice in Wonderland really well as Alice is being taught by her mother on a classic book, whereas Gwen's agent is pressurising er to create something new and goes to a writer's block session to make this happen.
Gwen playing the character's (apart from the white Rabbit or the caterpillar - which are both Japenese) reflects the pressure she is in and different ego states of Gwen, Alice being the childish one and the Queen beingthe adult one and pushed "alice" into the water.(in Alice's world - she is forced into the tunnel which leads her back to her world). The Queen played by Gwen in her video however is shown subtly topless, which is arguably a sexual undertone to the characters being sexualised, especially the wome (the white rabbit and the provocative dancing). This is also referneced in the song lyrics as Gewn says 'Take A chance you Stupid Ho', calling herself a 'ho' and 'stupid' sould be a genderised sattire against her agent who is typically male. The lyrics asre heavily gender orientated, 'SuperHot Female' and could be a reason why there are only two male character's in the video (the agent and the white rabbit). Gwen's facial expressions are also highly provocative when she is gasping for breath and 'oh'. The people who try to help her are the Herajuku girls, whichin the lyrics, the audience find out that they were her inspiration 'Damn You've Got Some Wicked Style' 'Back To Japan'. AS she is running through the maze trying to find, she finally does in the tea table scene, coming out from a drawer, where she is now in control and asking herself 'What you waiting for?' to finish her inspriartion and starts singing it in the microphone, back in the room and swirled back into the real world by her chair.The use of animals in both Alice in Wonderland (her cat Dina) and in Gwen's video (the pig,flamingos,dog) could interpret a message to the audience that Gwen having apig, is another sattire against the rich and famous producing songs as they have success, and ultimately going back to the reason of the song and being pressured for time to make a new hit record.
I love this song a video and being one of her fans I think it is clever and creative, Like those of Lady Gaga's and I think she must attract alot of Japenese/ Middle Eastern fans as she uses them a lot on tours, in her videos and her songs!

Thursday 23 September 2010

5.Target Audience of Artist/Band

Lady Gaga has no specific target audience as she is seen as an icon for her outstanding fashion sense/make-up and hair. She is applauded be her imaginative and creative Live tours, Albums and tracks and er music videos. However there are those that oppose her 'New' image and trendsetting stage as people believe that this has been done before by most strikingly, Pop Queen Madonna. Both Lady Gaga abd Madonna have ad the same film director for a few of their videos, which is open to arguements such like 'Lady Gaga May not be that original after all.'











This video is made by a Madonna superfan who slates Lady Gaga as not being original and that Madonna still reigns in terms of originality and a pop icon.

Thus, I would say that Lady Gaga reaches a target audience that enjoys Lady Gaga's music and her fahion which could be more temporary in terms of creativty and technolofgy building from when Madonna was around, but there will always be a comparison and counter arguement for each. Personally, I love both Lady Gaga and Madonna, coming from a teen's perspective and I would say she is a Madonna for the younger generation rather than the older.

She has appeared on many different Magazine articles including iconic music magazines, 'lad's mags' and women's 'Glossy' mags and high fashion magazines. This shows that she has a wide variety of looks to be on the cover and also an interesting character in the public eye of hot gossip magazines form grazia, more and cosmopolitan. When Lady Gaga ( Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) first appeared mainstream, differenting from her underground rock and understated gigs involving justher and her instruments, there was huge specualtion about her gender, whether she was a man or a woman. This has effectively boosted her audience for adrogynous looking men and women to aid support for their problems and boosting their self esteem. That is why many of her fanbase believe her to be a 'Role Model' for people affected by this contreversial issue. Her isnpirational quotes shuch as, "I want women -- and men -- to feel empowered by a deeper and more psychotic part of themselves. The part they're always trying desperately to hide. I want that to become something that they cherish." encourages people to embrace their inner secrets and to be proud of who they are. not nessecarily condoning any of her latest scandals of cocaine addiction but as she says ,"I'm a free bitch BABY!".

The lad's mags show a different side of her, as she has also been specualted as being bisexual so to be on a Playboy cover shows she may also be attractive to men also, but the pshycographics of this particualr man is unknown as Playboy attract a wide range of men with particualr interests. However, sterotypically the pshycographics of a lad's mags reader are ones of those with intersets in, sports, Cars, Women (nude or clothed) and disgusting accidents.

The High fahion magazines shows Lady Gaga fits into the niche of trend setting and she also wore late Designer Alexander Mcqueen's dresses. This is showing that she is marketed towards aspiring designers in terms of socio economics as she has beome a pop icon in fashion (much like Madonna.)

She is also on the covers of iconic music magazines like Q and Rolling Stone which shows she also targetted towards music lovers and to find out more about Lady Gaga's music.

By Lady Gaga having a facebook page, it then broadens her audience as we can see on the list of people that 'Like her' on facebook. Just by the pictures that come up I can identify that there are people from all different nationalities, sexualities, whether they are boy/girl, man/woman. In this respect, advertising herself on Facebook is going to give her a broader fanbase as many people use Facebook.

She also has a myspace page which again deos the same as a facebook except it is more personal as it is an 'Official' page including tour dates and information about her. However, this isn't aiming a wide audience as less people use myspace nowadays but she still ahs a massive amount of 'Friends' on her page!

As a lady Gaga fan myself, I don't think that every Lady Gaga fan is like myself as sheattracts all sorts of people as i found on a youtube video dedicated to Lady Gaga for her birthday, which showed people of all different demographic classifications of different races and ages, gender and sexes. In terms of their pshycographics, they all look induvidual with some with their own unique style and some wearing the iconic lightning bolt across your eyes like Lady Gaga's. The ages on this video saying happy birthday go from young to older generations and from all sorts of nationalities and etnicities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q7CKmeaOuM

This is a 'Superfan' of Lady Gaga's who last year made facebook and twitter pages to convince gaga to play at his nineteenth birthday party. In terms of demographics he is a white male and in his late teens. From these sorts of aspirations, connotes to the spolit brats of Americxa and Britain of the programme 'My Super Sweet 16' where young teens get their favourtie bands/artists to play at their birthday party, which usually theire parent's pay for so stereotypically he seems like one of those to hold those sorts of 'Divaish' pshycogrpahics which Lady Gaga can be seen as also. However I think that this person may earn an income but from looking at just his picture, he seems abit lady gaga obsessed! His Twitter background is Gaga and may of his tweets are about her and her songs, fashion and just generally her!

I looked at some of her fans from her facbook page, many of which, fans make profiles with Lady Gaga's photo as their own profile photograph. This person happens to be a teenage girl of I would say about my age 17. All of her comments and statuss from other friends were about Lady Gaga and seemed to be other teenagers also.

My researching her fanbases from such things like social nmetworking sites which I use, the main body that make up her fanbase are those of which are between the ages of young girls, to gay and staright teenagers and men and women in their twenties. Their interests will include those ofwhich Lady Gaga seems to have like dressing in way you feel comfortable and being at an age myself where it is a competition of clothing, can be seen as a role model for every age to be yourself! She is undoubtetly the most contreversial 'Diva' of my generation and of today's topics and it is eveident that her fanbase is broad and right across different groups and subcultures of people.

To conduct a survey online, i worte a comment on both a fanpage for Lady Gaga and an anti-"Gaga" page asking the fans why they like/hate Lady Gaga and asked about their demographics and pshycographics. ithought it would be intersedting to hear both sides of the debate about Lady Gaga and looking through the pictures on "I hate Lady Gaga" there seems to be a lot of controversey over her choice of clothing for the VMAS and her "Meat" dress. And other specualtion on her originality.




This is a printscreen of the feedback from my comment of the facebook page of 'I hate Lady Gaga'. 3 people responded to my comment and didn't take too kindly to my asking for their reasons for disliking Lady Gaga or thier age/sex etc. They suggested that I look at previous comments on this page. I browsed through and found that many Lady Gaga fans joined this group to slate it most of the fan's criticism is that they think she is the 'Queen' or quoting her song lyrics. These are more recent posts, and responses from those who really don't like Lady Gaga think she is 'Wrong' 'Horrible' and 'Dumb'. This could be for a number of reasons one of which being that they might be animal rights activists disapproving of her 'meat' dress.

Thursday 16 September 2010

4.Permission

In order for my group and I to use Lady Gaga's music, I need to check with the Record Company (interscope records) that we can have permission otherwise we would be breahcing copyright laws. These are important in the music industry to protect both the artist and the Record Label from others making out for ideas etc. to be their own.


3. Song Choice

The song my group and I decided on was Lady Gaga's 'Monster' track from her album 'The Fame Monster'. We had a vi son of a pop video and we thought would work well with a pop song. We started gathering ideas from bands like 'S Club 7', but figured we wanted someone new and contemporary, but has a track that hasn't got a video yet. We typed in 'pop video' into a genera search on YouTube and up came Gaga accepting an award for best Pop video. Then we all thought of a song that doesn't have a video and that we all love, which was 'Monster'. It is relevant to our generation and her music videos have been controversial to many people gaining influence from people like 'Madonna' and 'Michael Jackson'. Her videos are so clever and match with her songs very well and her genre. It would make a good digi pack and advertisement also as most of Lady Gaga's advertising etc. is linked in some way to the video/album either through pictures/writing etc. Don't call me GaGa I've never seen one like that before Don't look at me like that You amaze me He ate my heart He a-a-ate my heart (You little monster) He ate my heart He a-a-ate my heart out (You amaze me) Look at him Look at me That boy is bad And honestly He's a wolf in disguise But I can't stop staring in those evil eyes I asked my girlfriend if she'd seen you round before She mumbled something while we got down on the floor baby We might've fucked not really sure, don't quite recall But something tells me that I've seen him, yeah That boy is a monster M-M-M-Monster That boy is a monster M-M-M-Monster That boy is a monster Er-er-er-er He ate my heart (I love that girl) He ate my heart (Wanna talk to her, she's hot as hell) He licked his lips Said to me Girl you look good enough to eat Put his arms around me Said "Boy now get your paws right off me" I asked my girlfriend if she'd seen you round before She mumbled something while we got down on the floor baby We might've fucked not really sure, don't quite recall But something tells me that I've seen him, yeah That boy is a monster M-M-M-Monster That boy is a monster M-M-M-Monster That boy is a monster Er-er-er-er He ate my heart (I love that girl) He ate my heart (Wanna talk to her, she's hot as hell) He ate my heart He ate my heart Instead he's a monster in my bed I wanna Just Dance But he took me home instead Uh oh! There was a monster in my bed We french kissed on a subway train He tore my clothes right off He ate my heart then he ate my brain Uh oh uh oh (I love that girl) (Wanna talk to her, she's hot as hell) That boy is a monster M-m-m-monster (Could I love him?) That boy is a monster M-m-m-monster (Could I love him?) That boy is a monster M-m-m-monster (Could I love him?) That boy is a monster Er-er-er-er These are the lyrics for the song. Fortunately, the one profanity in the song is not spoken throughout but otherwise my group have come up with a theme of old style black and white B side horror movies, incorporating iconic 'Monsters' like Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein, Dracula etc. This is the basic idea and something that we think Lady Gaga might do with her wild and unique image in both her videos and style. Also, to link to her other videos like 'Paparazzi' and 'Telephone', we discussed having a short movie style like Michael Jackson's 'thriller' and incorporating credits and film reels into the video to make it have a vintage/ iconic edge by the use of visual effects like camera work and those you see in cinemas where the little black spots appear on the screen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U Lady Gaga's 'Telephone'.