Music Video Analysis-Ed Sheeran-You Need Me

Ed Sheeran- You need me, I don’t need you

Performance and narrative

This is a unique narrative video that has been shot in a studio and has been edited in black and white. The video is primarily performance-based, featuring a dancer who illustrates the lyrics through sign language.

The video begins with darkness and then a spotlight slowly expanding, this is shown through a long shot so that we can see the spotlight expanding under the dancer’s (who is the main protagonist) feet who is faced sideways and appears to be on a stage. We then see a medium shot of the bottom of Ed Sheeran’s body strumming his guitar which would show fans of Ed Sheeran that this is one of his videos as the shot of him strumming his guitar at the beginning of his music videos is his trademark. The image below shows the dancer sideways on:

The camera does close-ups of the dancer’s hands and this is because the dancer uses sign language to narrate and illustrate the lyrics all the way through the video. It also does close ups of the dancer's facial expressions such as his eyes. The screenshot below shows an example. The video contains a first person mode of address as the dancer is directly engaging the viewer through the camera which involves many close-up shots of the dancer’s hands and face to show his expression. The screenshots below show examples-the extreme close-up of the protagonist's eyes is particularly interesting as it introduces the actor. It is as almost as if he is trying to connect with the audience. The lighting is soft, with his facial expression intensifying the atmosphere, while the background is blurred. Below is an image of a close-up of the protagonist (dancer's) face to show his facial expression.

Throughout the video, there is a combination of long shots, medium shots, and close-up shots of the protagonist, with the lighting changing with each shot. The protagonist stands in a large spotlight. The lighting synchronizes with the different actions that the protagonist performs. For example, halfway through the video, the protagonist opens and closes his hands, and as he does that the lights brighten and dim. The editing is fast cut with the use of jump cuts keeping up with the beat. The sequence starts of at a slow pace to establish the mood and setting. Not a lot of camera movement is used as there is only one focus and that is on the dancer.

There is montage editing when footage of different dancers dancing in different locations are brought together and frequent jump cutting from dancer to instrument. Low-key lighting is used throughout and on the stage and the spotlight goes brighter whenever the chorus arrives. At one point, there are dancers performing, and these shots are usually montaged with the main protagonist and a medium shot of Ed Sheeran's hands strumming the guitar.

The video is edited in black and white which could connote simplicity which is common in Ed Sheeran's videos-it shows he is not yet an icon, he isn't flashy and his videos are clearly low-budget. As the genre of the song is hip hop/soul, this has been reflected in the mise-en-scene as it has been shot in a studio. Throughout the sequence, the shots of the actor are interrupted with dancers. their faces are not shown clearly because of the low-key lighting. This allows the viewer to focus on their dance moves. In some of the shots of the dancers, you are only able to see their silhouettes as the main focus is on their dance moves and the camera lens has been blurred.

Star Image

There is no star image as the singer only appears at random parts of the video when we only see Ed Sheeran’s lower body strumming the guitar. The only time we properly see Ed Sheeran is at the end of the video when he is standing in the dark on the stage with low-key spotlighting.

This shows he is not yet an icon as he doesn’t appear much and doesn’t show fancy cars, jewellery or glamorous women in any of his videos like other icons or famous rappers may do. In terms of mise-en-scene, we can see that this is a low-budget video from the absence of expensive props and because of the fact that very little props are used.

Intertextuality

There are no intertextual references at all as Ed Sheeran is not yet an icon like Madonna or Michael Jackson or Lady Gaga

Beats

Cut to the beat, very precise in the way the dancer moves his hands

Speed

The performance is speedy like the music

Additional information

Objects have been used to illustrate some of the lyrics which is iconographic. For example, this image of a rucksack was shown when the lyrics 'Selling CD's from my rucksack aiming for the papers' were sung. There is usually a spotlight on the object.

This video is a successful video and unique as a different approach has been used. The use of low-key lighting and editing has been cleverly done and worked for the video making it successful. Also, the way in which the singer doesn't actually appear in the video himself until the very end is unusual and unique and the fact that a dancer has been used as the main protagonist is also different to other music videos. Sign language to illustrate the video was also unique and clever, as the main words in the chorus are 'You need me man, I don't need you' and the fact that sign language is used to show this could suggest that maybe someone with hearing impairment who uses sign language may feel like this when people are constantly thinking that they need care.

During this analysis I have looked to see if this video has any of the following of the following from Goodwin's six theories:

Voyeurism: When other people look at the artist or an insight into their lives. e.g a screen within a screen- this video doesn't show any of this except through the lyrics-Ed Sheeran is singing about how he will one day become very famous even though critics are currently criticising him.

Close up’s: Images of the artist, usually of their face, distinguishing features or face to help make them more recognisable to fans e.g. Calvin Harris’s sunglasses-this is evident in this music video as we see close-ups of Ed Sheeran's guitar which makes him recognisable to fans.

Intertextuality: When another text is referenced e.g. parody-Ed Sheeran often refers to other artists in this song such as Gabriella Chilme.

Genre characteristics: What we expect to appear in their music video style e.g. in Ed Sheeran's videos we see his guitar which he always has in his music videos therefore it is what we expect to see

Relationship between Music and visuals: The means the visuals illustrate amplify or contradict the music e.g. fast paced may mean a lively video-this video is neither fast paced nor slow-paced, it is quite a medium pace and we see this from the steady paced performance.

Relationship between Lyrics and visuals: When the visuals on screen illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics e.g. an Image may appear on screens when it is referenced in the song. We see this when Ed Sheeran is singing about the rucksack-the rucksack comes onto the screen.

Music Video Analysis-Lady GaGa Born This Way

Born this way it includes both narrative and performance. The musical video represents sex, religion, freedom.

The audience has always known lady gaga for being unique and the fashion icon, this is due to the star image she’s usually presented which is linked to the way she dresses, dances and lyrics she sings. Lady gaga chose to reference Madonna in this video because the song it self references 80’s Madonna song “express your self”. The way lady gaga poses in a see through clothing is similar to one of Madonna’s poses and the non-human baby that comes out of both lady gaga and Madonna in “bedtime story”.

Below are some images of the type of person Lady GaGa is. She is seemed as quite strange yet unique and outrageous as we can see from the images below which are taken from the 'Born This Way' video.

In most if not all her videos she has a dance routine and in this video she’s dancing in a two-piece suit with her dancers. It’s a very sharp dace routine that matches the music beat, which later turns into playing with goo and having fun that’s where we see the disgusting gaga in the video. This shows gay people and their struggles with their sexuality. Shows how the audience may look at something that they may think its strange or not nice while others might be enjoying it. This video is about expressing and accepting yourself and others round you in society. There’s a scene that is totally not linked to the song where lady gaga is shown as a skeleton and the heads in the jars, this suggest the evil as well as the scene where she’s with a machine gun which presents danger.

Low-key lighting has been used through out the whole video this is related to horror with related to giving birth to non-human organism. It also makes the performer standout as light is focused on them. Close ups to lady Gaga’s face to identify her to the audience and show her importance in the video as well as to show the lip singing. Establishing shot has been used at the start to introduce the place and the over view of what’s happening. There’s fast cuts to some parts of her body this is used to show seduction with the help of her seductive clothing. Some cuts were done to the beats. There’s panning shot when dancers are dancing and few cuts to certain dance movements to match the beat. Symmetrical effects have been used when she’s giving birth this confuses the audience as it shows something complicated is taking place which makes them wanting to know what’s going to happen. Low angle shot used when she’s sat at the top of the earth this is to show that she’s greater and she has power, which suggest that, she’s controlling/ruling the world. She’s dressed in black and she’s got a machine gun, which also presents how the world is rules by the evil. Arial shots used when dancers playing with goo, showing a clear image of what they are doing this is also linked to making sexuality obvious putting across the idea that its nothing to be hidden.

I think this video is very important in terms of crossing a message over. It has been worked on very carefully. I like how some of it is related to the lyrics where some parts are totally irrelevant to what she is singing. The cutting of the dance and lip to the beat and words is really outstanding. However I do disagree that this video is viewed in front of little children because they may get scared or get confused as they don’t know much about gay, sexuality or even giving birth specially to non-human creatures.

Ed Sheeran - You Need Me, I Don't Need You (Official Video) Out Now

Lil Wayne - How To Love (Shazam Version)

Music Video Analysis

Lil Wayne – How To Love

The narrative category that this video falls into would be an illustration due to the way in which the video is used to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and visualizes the music in a straightforward way. But even though the lyrics are shown in the video in a straightforward way the idea of the video is very unique and requires creative interpretation from the audience. The video includes a very mature and in some ways upsetting storyline with actors, but it does also includes the main star throughout a majority of the video, lip-syncing, which gives the video an edge as its not the typical performance you would expect from the singer (Lil Wayne). Again, unlike most of his videos Lil Wayne isn’t very much in the spotlight throughout this video so the audience has a chance to view and understand the story within the song. There is no clear intertextuality within this video as the singer is very individual to himself

"Lil’ Wayne sits with his guitar rapping the lyrics while real life situations take place like rape and single motherhood."

The camera shots within How To Love include various extreme close ups/close ups mainly of the star (Lil Wayne) but also the other actors within the video this shows the facial expressions on these actors and considering this video is full of emotions these type of cameras shots can really show the audience the emotions of the various actors. These close ups also show various other important things within the video such as the scene in the strip club the close ups are mainly based around money which implies that money is very important to the girl, and within this story.

The speed within this video is very slow cut and the camera movements within each scene are very slow. The majority of this video is montage editing from different locations, of different actors and even from different time zones as this video is showing the life of the main character from when she was younger. You repeatedly see the main star Lil Wayne in often the same position and same location throughout which has been placed in between other cuts of the video through editing but this works very well considering the type of performance and story based video it is.

There are many different locations throughout this video such as the back alley in which the main star Lil Wayne is based and then changes to the hospital, a school, a house and many others. The lighting in this video is not highly based around the main star which is very unusual in this genre of music as the singer is usually the main part of the video but instead he is very in the background and when he is shown during the video the locations he is in are very plain and the lighting is very dark which implies that the attention is purposely not meant to be on him throughout this video. The mis-en- scene is well thought to fit in with the type of environment the actor is in for example when she is outside a school the actor is dressed in a graduation gown and hat so the audience can understand what is happening within the scene, whereas the main star is dressed very informal in pants and a vest which again shows that this video isn’t about him but instead the story he is trying to put across.