Music Video Analysis - Kelly Clarkson "Never Again"

Kelly Clarkson - 'Never Again'

“Never Again” was released in April 2007 and is the first single from Kelly Clarkson’s third studio album “My December” and reached No.9 in the charts. The genre of the song is Pop Rock, although Kelly Clarkson covers songs that are Pop, Rock and Soul.

The typical conventions used in a music video of this genre are:

- Band Shots, whole band shots and performance clips
- High lighting
- Bright lighting, not natural
- Close-ups, and extreme close-ups
- Colour effects, often monochrome
- Fast-pace editing
- Straight cuts
- Panning
- Seductive pose from the female artists
- Deserted locations with straight forward narrative
- Guitar solos
- Voyeurism
- Urban locations
- Singing whist act

The “Never Again” uses some of the typical convention such as performance clips where we see Kelly Clarkson singing with her band playing, and the video also uses close-up shots,which help portray the emotion. They is also some voyeurism involved when Kelly sinks into the bath, as it isn’t something we would witness so we have the feeling of looking in.

The straight cuts in the video cut to the beat of the song, and when the pace of the song gets quicker the cuts match the tempo. The video also has visuals that match the music lyrics which help tell the narrative of the song, as when the lyrics “Hope he ring you gave to her, Turns her finger green” we see the image of a hand with a ring on the wedding finger.

The lighting of the narrative scenes of the video are dull and dark whereas the performance shots are the complete opposite and are very well lit. The band performance is in a white room and all the people in the room are wearing white and the guitars are also white, this connotes purity. The performance and narrative based scenes are split 30% performance based and 70% narrative based.

Music Video Analysis - Pink "Please Don't Leave Me"

Pink - "Please Don't Leave Me"

The Single “Please Don’t Leave Me” was released by Pink in April 2009, and reached No.12 in the UK Singles Chart. The songs genre is pop rock, although Pink cover songs at are Pop, Rock, R&B, Pop Punk and Dance-punk. The producer of this Music Video is Max Martin, and the promo is directed by Dave Meyers that has directed 11 of Pink’s music videos as well as the Britney Spears Hits; “Lucky” and “Radar”.

The typical conventions used in a music video of this genre are:
- Band Shots, whole band shots and performance clips
- High lighting
- Bright lighting, not natural
- Close-ups, and extreme close-ups
- Colour effects, often monochrome
- Fast-pace editing
- Straight cuts
- Panning
- Seductive pose from the female artists
- Deserted locations with straight forward narrative
- Guitar solos
- Voyeurism
- Urban locations
- Singing whist act

The Please Don’t Leave Me music video uses some of these typical conventions such singing whist acting as well as seductive poses from female artists, as Pink does a seductive dance when in a nurse’s outfit. It also makes use of a camera pan right near the beginning of the video which places the viewer in the room and directs us to the action.

The video appears to cut to the beat and the use of fades to and from black help the video seem dark and eerie. We can also see that the lyrics have a relationship with what’s happening in the video as the lyrics “perfect little punching bag” shows Pink punch the man like a punching bag.

In this video there are some intertextual references to films from the thriller/horror genre. There is a direct imitation to “Misery” when Pink smashes the kneecaps of her man with a golf club, there is also a direct imitation to “The Shining” when Pink runs after the man with an axe and breaks through the bathroom door and looks through the hole she made. The video also released a censored version because the amount of violence that was used in it. The censored version has the most violent scenes cut and contains shots that aren’t used in the original, as when Pink runs after the man with an axe, the camera is on the man running away and not Pink running after him.

Unlike other music videos this one is all narrative based, usually most videos have an element of performance however this one doesn’t but we see Pink singing the song as if it was play as the lyrics matched the action in the music video.

Analysis of Lyrics - "Tonight I Let You Go"

When analysing the lyrics we thought what each of the lyrics meant, and whether they had deeper meaning and as it is a male vocalist we felt that the heartbreak was caused by a woman, however then thought we can’t be sure whether it was at a woman as there is a chance he was gay, but as the typical conception of this style of song would be a break-up/heartbreak between a man and a woman, so when making a video we will be show a man getting heartbroken by a woman.

The things we have picked up on in the lyrics are annotated below:

Music Video Analysis - Maroon 5 "This Love"

Maroon 5 - This Love

Song Facts:

It is about a guy who thought everything was good but was blinded by the fact that the relationship was going to hell. She's left him lots of times, playing with his heart, but this time she's not coming back. It hit him hard, and it's like a permanent scar. He did what he could to keep her, but she's just never satisfied. He's playing love like it's a game, not taking it seriously, which angers her and causes her to leave. He wants to fix what's broken, and make everything better again. He just wants to love her, because it's what they both want, but when she left him for good, it hurt him, and he doesn't know if he can go through it again.

According to lead singer Adam Levine, this song is about how he was fed up with his relationship with Jane and how the record label was pressuring the band for more songs.

There are 2 versions of the video, both featured vocalist Adam Levine canoodling with his girlfriend at the time, model Kelly McGee. The second version is a censored version where flowers cover nudity.

Analysis:
The single “This Love” was released by Maroon 5 in January 2004, and was the second song on their album, “Songs about Jane” and reached No.3 in the UK Singles Chart. The song’s lyrics are based on Adam Levine's break-up with a former girlfriend. The songs genre is pop rock, although Maroon 5 cover songs at are alternative rock, pop rock and funk rock.

The typical conventions used in a music video of this genre are:
- Band Shots, whole band shots and performance clips
- High lighting
- Bright lighting, not natural
- Close-ups, and extreme close-ups
- Colour effects, often monochrome
- Fast-pace editing
- Straight cuts
- Panning
- Seductive pose from the female artists
- Deserted locations with straight forward narrative
- Guitar solos
- Voyeurism
- Urban locations
- Singing whist act

The Music Video was directed by Sophie Muller and combines a performance of the band in a courtyard with scenes of Adam Levine parting ways with a woman.

The camera positions in the scene of Adam Levine and a woman places the viewer in to the scene making us feel we are looking in, and invading their privacy. The audience is make to feel that they are looking in by the camera shots and positions used, and as they Levine is parting ways with a woman, and this isn’t something that is viewed in the real world as it’s something that is done between two people privately. The shots of Levine looking up at the camera when on top of the woman, brings us a little close to the action as the shot is a close up shot and this is closer than the viewer is used to, so the viewer may feel they are looking in on them while they share a private moment.

The editing of the video is effective as the video is cut to the beat of the song which helps illustrate the song. Through most the song straight cuts are used, and then the cuts are different near the end with only the people of the shot change from band members performing to Adam Levine parting ways with a woman.

There is a relationship between the music and video, and some lyrics seem to could have deeper meanings however it is how the viewer consumes the lyrics and music video.

Video effects are used for the censored version of the music video as CGI is used to censor the scenes of Adam Levine parting ways with a woman with computer generated rose petals. Both versions are available however the CGI edited version is used for the music channels on the television, and to access the uncensored version the viewer has to prove they are over 18 to watch the video on sites such as http://www.youtube.com/.

The video is set in a courtyard in Mexico, we later find how the floor is quite sandy and beach like when the lead singer of the band, Adam Levine, takes to the floor of the courtyard rolling around in the sand, which makes the courtyard seem a little more tropical, as it’s not the typical place where a band would perform in a music video as it normally is plain, and empty with clutter, and wouldn’t have sand, or blossom trees in fact. The other set in the video is a bedroom was where we see Levine parting with a woman which is an intimate scene which caused controversy when the uncensored video was released, a woman from “The Daily Telegraph” described the video as a “porno-pop video” which can be seen by many to be an absurd over-reaction. The pink blossom trees in the courtyard are a significant prop within the video as pink connotes love, beauty and glamour, although the songs involves love, it’s the break up and not the passionate love what pink connotes.