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Elastic Heart Music Video Analysis

Genre
This music video connotes the pop genre as there are clear production values, such as the large metal cage.

The video does not have a typical narrative for a pop video. It is more symbolic than most other popular music videos, as the narrative is an extended metaphor of people struggling with mental health issues, as one half of them is fighting with the other, in their mind. The mind is shown as a cage in the video.

Generally, popular music videos have a simpler narrative, for example I Really Like You by Carly Rae Jepsen.



Therefore, such a symbolic music video is unexpected from popular music.

There are no intertextual references in this music video.


Narrative
The storyline of the video is unclear as it is largely up for interpretation. However, it could be seen as a father who tries to get close to his daughter, who may have some sort of mental health issue, making it almost impossible for him.

Todorov's narrative structure can be seen in this video as it starts on the 'recognition of disruption of equilibrium' stage.

The characters in this music video do not fit in with Propp's seven character types.


Visual Codes
The video is set in a cage in a white room. The cage could represent the mind of someone with an inner turmoil, as the younger version of themselves can leave easily, but the older, although is physically able, is being held back, possibly by their responsibilities, etc.

The dominant colour of this video is white, connoting purity and innocence. There is no typography or iconography.

There are lots of longshots on the characters, provoking a sense of mystery around them.

Technical Codes
There are several shots that track around the outside of the cage, representing other peoples view of people with this inner turmoil.

The editing is quite fast paced, connoting the war that is gong on inside the person's mind.


Organisations
The record company, Monkey Puzzle Records had a minimal role to play in the music video, as they decided to respect the artist's choices with the video, as she wanted it to reflect the song as well as possible. As it is a relatively unknown company, they were more relaxed about letting her do her thing, rather than dictating every aspect, as a more mainstream company might.

The artist, Sia, is not seen in this video, as she has a dancer, Maddie Ziegler, who appears in her music videos, rather than herself.

Audience
This music video has a fairly wide target audience, from teenagers around to 30 year olds of most demographics, but especially C3 and D. It attracts the older end of the audience by having a mature theme and it attracts the younger end by including Shia LaBeouf, who is famous for films, including the Transformers franchise, which is very popular with this audience.

The main signifier that this is the target audience is that the video has strong themes of love, however more within a family. This helps to target 30-year-olds, as people often start a family around this age.

The teenager audience will most likely see the video on the internet on sites, such as YouTube, as this is a very popular website for this age group. The older end, however, will most likely see it by buying it on iTunes.


Representation
In this video, younger people are represented as being free-minded, shown when the young girl is able to leave the cage but the man can't. The man is physically able to leave the cage, as shown when he gets most of his body through, but pulls himself back in. This connotes that adults are held back by their concerns and responsibilities.

 

 

Analysing this music video will help when making our music video as it uses symbolism very effectively and we can take inspiration from it.

Presentation Video

Here is a presentation on what makes a good music video. It will help us when making our own music video as we will be able to conform to techniques that have been proven to be successful.

Analyses of a Music Video according to Goodwins Theory

Fancy

1. The genre characteristic of comedy films - high key lighting - is used to connote that the music video will be a parody of something and will have comedic elements.
   
2. There is definitely a relationship between the lyrics and the music video. For example, when the artist says, "like I'm teaching lessons in physics", she is seen standing in front of a class.
   
3. The is not a relationship between the music and the visuals in this music video.
4. In this music video, the closest commonly occurring shot is a medium close up, not a close up.
   
   
   
   
5. There are no motifs used in this music video that occur in the artist's other videos, with the exception of her saying her name during the songs - however in later songs it has been shortened to "Iggy Iz".
6. The artist is not seen looking at herself in this video.
7. This video has lots of references to the film Clueless. For example, the outfit Azalea wears for a large part of the video. 

Goodwin's Theory

In 1992, Andrew Goodwin published 'Dancing In The Distraction Factory'. In this book he said that there were seven codes/conventions present in music videos. A music video doesn't have include all of them, but they tend  to include at least two or three.

1. Certain genre characteristics are shown - videos often are linked to film characteristics, e.g. horror or comedy.
2. Relationship between video and lyrics - this can either be an illustration of the lyrics or a contradiction. For example, the music video for Leave Before The Lights Come On has a narrative that is nothing to do with the lyrics:
3. Relationship between music and visuals.
4. Record labels require a certain amount of close ups on the artist (generally pop artists).
5. Some artists create motifs that they use across their music videos, e.g. The White Stripes - drums.
6. Reference to artist looking at something, often themselves. Lots of cameras and screens, etc.
7. Often lots of intertextual references (references to other media texts).