Ed Sherran Lego House Music Video Analysis

The song genre is indie, and the music video matches this.

The music video is based on the fact that the artist Ed Sheeran once said he looked like Ronald Weasly a character from the Harry Potter films played by Rupert Gint. Ed Sheeran and Rupert Grint met by chance and he was asked to appear in one of Ed Sheeran's music videos.

The genre is indie-pop, because of the pop hooks used in the song and indie feel to the song has as well as the paler colours used in the video which makes it look less glamourous and similar to real life(realism).

The song is amplified through the music video. It is expected that the song would be about a couple, however the music video changes this to the love a fan has for an idol. Towards the end of the song as the fan's behaviour becomes more angry and mad this contradicts with the slow melodic feel of the song.

Video uses a ange of static shots and shots that feel more shaky.
The Music video cuts to the beat and the pace builds once it is revealed that Rupert Grint is playing a crazy fan who is obsessed with Ed Sheeran rather than portraying Ed Sheeran himself, as we are mislead to believe. This is most likely to dramatise the reveal and to emphasise his mad state of mind.

The record company uses Rupert Grint's star power as a world famous movie star to sell the song through the music video. This draw of film star power is likely to gain the video many more viewings, as Ed Sheeran has only just recently managed to become well-known.
Other than pictures in the fans house, the artist Ed Sheeran himself is not seen until the very end of the video for a few seconds. Instead he is portrayed through Rupert Grint's character throughout the first half of the video as we are led to believe that he is.

Ed Sheeran's is also shown very little in both his previous videos. In the 'A-Team' Ed is only shown during when he buys a copy of the Big Issue and talks to the homeless girl who is the star of the video and is only seen in flashes in 'You Need Me I Don't Need You' between shots of a man using signing the lyrics. 

The idea of looking is used in this video when Rupert Grints character looks into the mirror. In this video it is used to represent his characters confusion and feeling of anomie. 

The video is mostly narrative but is also shows Rupert Grints character miming the song throughout.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a mix between two different media texts. John Stewart theorises that visual reference in music videos come from a range of sources. The three most popular being cinema, fashion and art/photography.

One example of intertextuality in a music video is Eminem's video for 'Without me'. In this video Eminem parodies many different pop culture references in the music video. Throughout the video the narrative is told like a comic strip, and Eminem dresses up as Robin (Batman and Robin). This pop culture reference immediately tells the audience that Eminem is acting as a hero. In this video Eminem also parodies reality TV shows, talk shows and people such as Elvis and Osama Bin Laden.

Another video to use intertextuality is Example's 'Last One Standing'. This video is based on 60's cop shows, however instead of catching murderers and bank robbers they are chasing people who have pirated his album. The title used at the beginning of the video as well as the costumes used establishes the concept of a 60's TV cop show. In the video the typical cop show is parodied with the use of a chase scene in which Example's character does unnecessary tricks and flips while chasing the criminal. It is also parodied with the use of bad fight scenes, stereotypical characters and a cheesy freeze frame at the end of the video. 

Tinie Tempah's video for 'Wonderman' is a homage to 70's TV show The Six Million Dollar Man. Tinie Tempah stars as the hero (Wonderman) and is on a mission to save the world and Ellie Goulding who features on the track playing a doctor who is helping him. The video follows narrative matches the TV show where an astronaught crashes and is badly injured and has to be rebuilt with bionic limbs, and becomes a secret agent. This is all seen in the video, and also uses action shots that would  be part of the TV shows story line, such as cathing criminals and exploding buildings. The video is meant to be fun and also connect with the song. 

Marc Webb- Music Video Director

Marc Webb is a director who started his career directing music videos and has since moved on to directing critically accliamed film (500) days of Summer. 

Webb's first music video was for Canadian Rose by Blues Traveler, made in 1997.Webb has since directed music videos for many genres. For example he has directed pop artists such as Ashlee Simpson and Miley Cyrus, videos for american bands such as Maroon 5, All American Rejects, My Chemical Romance, Green Day and Jimmy Eat World and for more indie artists such as Regina Spektor, Hot Hot Heat and Gavin DeGraw.

Webb's signature which has appeared in some of his videos in a white lamb. This can be seen in such videos as Yellowcard's Ocean Avenue.

Webb moved from music video into film with 2009 romantic drama film (500) Days of Summer, which recieved a positive critical reception. In January 2010 Webb was named director of the next Spiderman film, which will be released in 2012. 

Music Video History Timeline

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c1900		Edison invents the gramophone in the USA: first shift from music as a solely live and audiovisual experience to recorded audio on various forms of disc
1920s		Fischinger experiments with sound/vision synchronisation on film
1927		First sound film The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, USA)
1930s		Creation of first 'soundies'
1939		Introduction of the Panarom
1940s		Peak period of MGM Hollywood musical
1954		Elvis Presley records That's All Right (Mama)
1960		Scopitone introduced in France
1963		UK's first music TV programme, Ready Steady Go (ITV)
1964		Top of the Pops TV programme begins (BBC)                                                         The Beatles releasethe film and album, A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, UK)
1966		The Monkees' TV show starts on NBC in the USA
1967		The Beatles release TV promos for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever
1975		Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
1977		Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, USA)
1979		Buggles: Video Killed the Radio Star (Russel Mulcahy)
1980		David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes (David Mallet and David Bowie)
1981		Pop Clips Nickolodeon                MTV Starts Duran Duran: Girls on Film (Kevin Godley and Lol Creme)
1983		Michael Jackson:Thriller (John Landis)    Beginning of Country Music Television (CMT)
1984		Music Box starts in Europe           MTV Video Music Awards launched
1985		VH1 begins                     MTV taken over by Viacom                                          Live Aid
1986		Dire Straits: Money for Nothing (Steve Barron) is top video
1987		MTV-Europe (MTV_E) launched, broadcasting to 1.6m homes             Perter Gabriel: Sledgehammer (Stephen Johnson), wins best director award
1988		MTV-Europe achieves 3.5 m subscribers
1989		MTV-Europe reaches 6.7m homes                      Live broadcast from Moscow Peace Festival                                             Madonna: Express Yourself (David Fincher), wins best director award
1990		Madonna: Vogue (David Fincher), wins best director award    Launch of MTV-Unplugged
1991		Madonna: Justify My Love (Jean-Basptiste Mondino)
1992		MTV launches The Real World, a fly-on-the-wall documentary following the lives of seven people sharing a New York loft
1993		MTV launches TV series Beavis and Butthead
1994		REM: Everybody Hurts (Jake Scott), wins best director award      Launch of VH1 in the UK                         Launch of MTV Music Awards
1997		MTV UK and Ireland launches as stand-alone channel
1998		Launch of Celebrity Deathmatch
1999		Fatboy Slim: Praise You(Spike Jonze), wins best director award
2000		Launch of Jackass
2001		Launch of MTV Dance

The Wanted ‘Glad You Came’ music video analysis

The video for ‘Glad you came’ by boy band The Wanted was directed by Director X, a Canadian music video director noted for his high-budget, visually distinctive music videos for popular music singles. He has directed videos for Jay Z, Nelly Furtado, Usher and many more. The video for ‘Glad You Came’ was released in June 2011. The song is a dance-pop track, and the video follows the typical characteristics of a pop video as there is a party scene and the band members are shown as having a glamorous lifestyle as they are shown relaxing on the beach, going on boat rides and throwing parties. The idea of the artists having a glamorous lifestyle is commonly found in pop videos such as JLS’s ‘She Makes Me Wanna’ and Jason Derulo’s ‘Don’t Wanna Go Home’, as pop videos attempt to sell the star as being desirable and having a desirable lifestyle. However the video goes against the typical feature of a boy band’s music video using choreography as the band do not perform a dance routine in their video.

‘Glad You Came’ is about partying and meeting someone who changes your life. This is illustrated by the visuals in the video as it is sees the band at a house party and going to clubs in Ibiza. Using Ibiza as the videos location uses Goodwin’s idea of intertextuality to emphasise the party feel the song has, as Ibiza is associated with partying and is often shown on TV and in other music videos as representing having wild parties. This in turn emphasises the dance feel the song has and the atmosphere the video is trying to create for it.

The cuts in the video synchronise to the beat of the track, in particular matching the accordion. In this way the editing illustrates the accordion. It also emphasises the party feel of the video and the track, as it uses quick sharp shots emphasises the fast tempo, and create a sense of excitement and fun. During the rift of the song where the accordion is main sound the editing pace of the video speeds up, where as during the verses and the chorus when the voice is the main sound the editing slows a little mirroring the accordion. This fast paced edit makes the audience want to view the video again and again, as the pace of editing is so quick it is impossible to see every shot only watching it once and therefore will need to be viewed several times to fully appreciate it and understand it. This plays to Goodwin’s idea that music videos need to have repeatability.

The record company sells this track as a summer party song, which is illustrated through the song itself, which has a dance/party style and also in the lyrics which reference drinking, also through the visuals in the music video, which show the band partying and in a sunny location. The record company is obviously trying to appeal to a young adult audience with this angle and through the bands fun image. The star image of The Wanted has changed for their second album; this is partly because the youngest member of the band Nathan Sykes turned 18 shortly before the release of ‘Glad You Came’. This has lead to a more sexualised image for the band, compared to quite an innocent image portrayed through out their previous music videos such as ‘Heart Vacancy’. This is evident as in ‘Glad You Came’ the band members are shown topless, going to night clubs in Ibiza and dancing with models. Their image has changed from being quite innocent to more mature, however this image change is not so dramatic that it will loose them fans. Goodwin argues the construction of a star’s image is important to guarantee sales and long careers. Clearly The Wanted and their record label are trying to broaden their audience from the typical teenage girl target audience most boy bands have out to young adults.

The video for ‘Glad You Came’ also develops a motif used in The Wanted’s videos where the bands name in their logo font is shown at the beginning and end of the video. This is followed in their other recent video for the single ‘Lightning’. This has put across their band name as an identifying feature in their videos. The video also uses shot of the band signing together in a straight line. Shots very similar to this have been used in all the bands videos and also on all their single covers and how they would stand on stage when performing live. This motif shows a defining shot of the band’s image as performers.  

The band is sexualised in their videos to appeal to their large female audience. They are sexualised through the use of close-ups of the band member’s faces and chests and slow motion of the band members flirting with the models in the video. This portrays the band members as attractive and desirable to the female audience who gain pleasure from watching the band member’s show off their looks. This plays to their image of glossy stars and would encourage their female fans to watch the video and also sells the band as attractive stars. The video incorporates Goodwin’s ideas of voyeurism though the use of the female models as adornments to flatter the band member’s ego. This again reinforces their image of glamorous, desirable stars. The models and dancers in the video are also sexualised in the video. This is clear as the models are seen wearing very little clothing and are shown in close up fragmented body shots through out the video. The models are sexualised in order to encourage the male viewer to watch. In this way the music video can attract both male and female viewers to watch as both males and females would gain pleasure from watching the video.

Goodwin’s idea of ‘looking’ is also seen with the use of mirrors in the party scene, when one of the band members and a model are embracing. This could be used to emphasis the idea that audience is looking in on an intimate moment.

During the slow intro to the song the colours of the mise-en-scene and of the clothes worn by the band are darker. Whereas when the dance beat starts the colours are brighter and the bands clothing is lighter and more colourful. This is used to emphasis a contrast between the more meaningful introduction to song, to the dance feel created by the increased tempo and beat, and emphasis the key moments in the song. The use of laser lighting in the party location brings bright colour to the shot and emphasises the dance feel of the song. The glamorous look of the house party location (pool and huge rooms) adds authenticity to the idea that the band are stars and are living an exciting lifestyle.

The band lip-synching is the main focus in ‘Glad You Came’. It mostly consists of the band lip-synching and performance as the band are shown in shots that just show the band lip-syncing their track, and then several other shots where the band lip-sync the track at the house party. In some they are together, shown often in long shots or medium close ups, jumping and singing. There are also close ups during the solos, and when the band members are lip-synching to the models. Close ups are most likely used to make a close connection with the audience and because the voice is seen as the most important part of a pop video. The rest of the video is a montage of the band on the beach and going to clubs in Ibiza and of people at the party.