Music Videos Analysis

Single Ladies - Beyonce



'Single Ladies' by Beyonce is one of the first single of many released from platinum selling album 'I Am Sasha Fierce' which was released in 2008. The video is directed by Jake Nava was shot entirely in black and white to emphasise the two parts of the album. Half of the songs on the album were written by Beyonce and the other half was by her alter-ego Sasha Fierce. The video itself won multiple awards such as the MTV Video Music Award 'Video Of The Year' in 2009.

This video is an Illustration video because it is a simple straight forward performance video, there is no narrative story as such played out in the text, instead it just features the artist (Beyonce) and two back up dancers doing a compelling choreographed routine. By just having the main artist and two back up dancers on  both sides of her, it makes the audience lock onto her and observe what she is doing. To emphasise this, the director has chosen to choose particular shots like extreme close-ups of face numerous times to engage the viewers to the video and make them more connected to the artist.

This video features a few different types of camera shots, and lighting, for example at the beginning of the video,it opens up with a long shot of her and her dancers on either sides of her with the light hitting behind them which hides their face away from the camera but a few seconds later, another light approaches them from the front showing their faces and bodies. There are a few camera movements aswell in the video, from crane shots to follow the choreography of the performer and dolly shots to track their movement.

There isn't much going on for the mis-en-scene of the video, the background is kept basic although with the expressive artifical light alternating back and fourth does make it effective for the viewer to watch. As for what they are wearing, the two dancers on the side of her are wearing a black sleeveless leotard, but Beyonce on the other hand is wearing a black one sleeved leotard with a gold metal armour like glove on one of her hands. Having the main artist wearing a slightly different outfit from the dancers is common because it makes them stand out on the screen.


Star Image, as Beyonce is one of the world's biggest stars, whenever she has created a new album or released a single, her record company will heavily promote it as she is probably the only few or one artist that will generate any substantial profit for the company. Beyonce has released 4 albums to date, and for each one of those albums, she has had a complete makeover not only on her music but on her aswell as a new way of selling herself to the target market by her record company (Artist & Repertoire (A&R)). For example from her first album 'Crazy In Love' to her fourth now which is called '4', her music sound and her style have evolved as time has gone by.

Yoü  and I - Lady Gaga



This particular video is a mixture of Amplification and Disjuncture as most of Lady Gaga's videos are. It features a lot of creative and unusual ideas to portray the narrative of the song to the audience, for example in this video Lady Gaga has got numerous alter-egos like Jo Calderone, the male version of her sitting on the piano smoking and drinking beer and Yuyi, the mermaid in the tank. The narrative code of this video is loose and simply suggestive because it is not realistic in anyway, Lady Gaga has portrayed this twisted fairy-tale gone wrong idea which makes gives it repeatability, making it easy for the viewer to watch it again and again without getting bored.

Like 'Single Ladies', this video falls into the conventions of a solo artist performance because it features a choreographed routine in the chorus to emphasize it and make it stick into the viewer's mind whenever they are hearing it either on the radio or somewhere else, the chorus also features a long shot showing the choreographed routine.

Lady Gaga is the concrete meaning of star image, ever since she burst onto the scene back in 2008, she has evolved herself and her music to attract her fans. She to this date has she worn an outfit twice, anything that she does will get publicity. Whether if its getting out of a car or turning up to an award show wearing a dress made entirely out of meat. She uses this as an advantage in two ways, one through her music sales, the more the media talk about her, the more people will buy her music and also the second way, Lady Gaga is all about expressing who you truly are, and by expressing herself through fashion with these unusual and creative outfits, she is spreading the message of love who you are not don't change a thing and this is why she is one of the world's most beloved and famous artist right now.