Music video analysisSophie Harris-Brotherhood

‘Love story’ is a song by American singer and song writer Taylor Swift. ‘Love story’ comes from her second studio album , Fearless (2008)The song is a country pop song and was written about a love interest of Taylor’s.The music video was directed by Trey Fanjoy, the video is a period piece that drew influences from the Medieval, Renaissance and British Regency eras.

‘Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics’

According to Goodwin’s theory, each genre portrays certain characteristics that define that genre. Taylor swift’s Love Story fits into the pop genre and the music video to the song has lots of characteristics that contribute to the pop genre:

One element of pop videos is performance, this can be based on a narrative side to the music video. The ’Love Story’ music video is narrative based and Taylor swift is playing the character of a love struck girl falling in love with the man of her dreams. This shown through different shots throughout the video, as an audience we watch as the love story progresses.

Another aspect of pop videos is the cuts used, pop videos use a lot of jump cuts. ‘love story’ fits into this as lots of jump cuts are used to show the narrative progressing and developing. The jump cuts also speed up the story and make it seem more fast paced and exciting.

Colour schemes are also an important aspect of music videos and choosing the right one to fit the genre is very important. Pop videos tend to have neutral colour schemes, and ‘Love Story’ follows this convention. Set in the medieval era, the colour scheme consits of beige plain colours. The costume and mise en scene is all very bland and monotomous. The music video contains dull shades such as white and cream.

The only time the music video doesn't’t follow the colour scheme is at the end of the love story when the two of them are in a field. This then brings bright green colours to the video and it links back to when they first met

‘There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.’Taylor Swifts’ ‘Love Story’ is based on a love story, therefore the video represents the story told through the lyrics. The lyrics describe a couple who cant be together because her father doesn’t approve of him. ‘And my daddy said, Stay away from Juliet’. As well as the lyrics telling the story, the acting in the music video also makes the audience aware of what is going on.

The visuals reflect the lyrics by having past and present, with jump cuts cutting to different moments in their relationship. By doing this they make the story more emotive as the video along side the lyrics takes the listener/viewer on a journey with the two characters.

‘You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess’

‘Romeo, save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel.’

‘Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone.’

‘The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work’Throughout the music video ‘Love Story’ there are lots of close ups of the main artist, Taylor. As well as close ups of Taylor Swift there are also close ups of the love interest in the video. By showing close ups of the two the audience can relate more to the song and the video its self, as the close-up shows the characters emotions and their passion. This will evoke emotions for the audience as it will make the situation and the story more believable.

Taylor Swift doesn’t have a particular motif however a recurring factor that I have noticed amongst her music videos is the story line and the type of setting. In another one of her videos ‘Blank Space’ she is standing in a similar setting of a big house. The story line is also very similar with the idea of love and relationships being at the heart of it.

”There are frequent references to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body”Throughout the music video we can often see the male character looking at the female artist in a certain way that presents her as a sexual object to the audience. Due to the male looking at the female in this way it makes her seem more appealing to the viewers.

As well as seeing how the male looks at the female we can also see how they look at each other. The music video of Love story shows frequent close ups of the ‘star crossed’ lovers. By showing these close ups we are shown the love that the two have or each other. This look makes the story seem more believable for the audience.

The characters costumes also present the female in a sexual way. By making her wear a low cut dress, this will attract the attention of men and will please the audience.

“There is often intertextual references to films, TV, other music videos, ect”

Taylor swift’s ‘Love Story’ has very close relations to the Shakespeare play Rome and Juliet. Throughout the music video and the song references to Romeo and Juliet are seen and heard such as the lyrics ‘ Romeo save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel’ and ‘Marry me Juliet’. Another significant similarity is the ball in both Romeo and Juliet and in Love story. Both stories feature a ball where the lovers dance together, this can be seen in both stories.

Taylor swift has tried to resemble Juliet in her music video, she has done this by wearing similar outfits and having a very similar setting, the famous balcony from the Romeo and Juliet film. Watching both clips I noticed a lot of the angles and position of the two main female characters are very similar

“Whether the video is primarily performance-based, narrative-based or concept based and how elements of each is used in it”

” Love story” is primarily narrative based as it follows a story line of Tylor falling in love but her father doesn’t want her to be with him, the music video shows us the story through visuals.

’Jar of hearts’ is a debut single by American singer Christina Perri. The inspiration for the song comes from a real-life experience with a al ove interest who wanted to rekindle a broken relationship. At the time of the song release Perri was unsigned. This created a lot of discussion between critics.

‘Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics’Christina perri’s ‘Jar of Hearts’ fits in with the pop genre there for follows the conventions of a pop video. This includes a narrative story being told. In the video Christina is playing the character of a woman who has has her heart broken by a man who is ‘collecting a jar of hearts’ we can tell that the story isn’t a happy one through the colours used throughout the video, they are all very dark colours connoting with a dark story. We can also tell it’s a pop video through the camera shots used, a lot of the shots are either close ups or long shots, there are also a lot of jump cuts, something used a lot in pop videos.

‘There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.’

There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as the lyrics and the visuals are both telling the same love story so they have to link. The song tells a story of a heartbroken girl who is angry at the man. She regrets ever being with him and tells the audience that he breaks every ones heart. Not only do the lyrics tell us this but we can visually see it in the video

At this point in the video the lyrics say ‘Can’t take one more step towards you’ this shows a relationship as she is sat on some steps.

In this scene the dancers are supposed to represent all the girls that he has hurt ‘running around leaving scars

The weather also shows a relationship as it represents a cold mood. The lyrics say ‘your’e going to catch a cold’ relating to the visual.

‘The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work’Throughout the music video there are lots of close-ups of the main characters. Close-ups are a good feature of music videos as it helps the audience relate to the music video more and helps them connect to the story and the characters more. In this case the audience can sympathise with the main character as the close-up allows the viewers to see her emotions.

”There are frequent references to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body”

In this music video the way women are treated is presented negatively as they are shown to repeatedly get their hearts broken. The video also shows two intimate scenes, both represent women as sexual objects. This will attract a male audience to the video as this is what that type of audience want to see.

There is also a scene which makes women look strong as they all join together. This makes the women look strong and shows that they don’t need a man. This relates with the story of the song

“There is often intertextual references to films, TV, other music videos, ect”

Although the song doesn’t have any direct references to any films or TV programmes it does have a slight element to fairytale about it. The video shows a jar being filled with hearts and girls loosing their hearts. It has a slight dark twist to it, similar to witch craft. The entire video is dark and sinister so this links in well with the fairy tale idea.

“Whether the video is primarily performance-based, narrative-based or concept based and how elements of each is used in it”

‘Jar of Hearts’ is both narrative based and performance based as it is performed in the video, it also tells a romance story to the audience, which the audience follow.