Task 2 - Lady Gaga - Bad Romance - Analyisis

Lady Gaga Bad Romance Video Deconstruction

In the music video for Lady Gaga's Bad Romance it has lots of imagery in there for innocents. At the very start of the video Lady Gaga is sat in the middle of a lot of people on a throne. She is dressed in gold whereas all of the men stood around her are in black and the woman are dressed in white. This makes you automatically focus on her because she stands out. The camera zooms in on her and this makes it certain that the video is focused on her. She is wearing metal glasses with razor blades on them, this shows that she is dangerous and she shouldn't be messed with. Then it cuts to a shot of her with her finger on the play button on a Parrot iPod speaker. This is product placement and it happens throughout this video. There is also product placement for Russian Vodka called Lex Nemiroff. This could show that the guys in the video are Russian and this could have links to the Russian Mob.

The next part of the video there is 4 pod like things on the floor and one of them has "Monster" written on it and it has a cross on it. The religious themes run through this whole video and this could mean several things. These pods are in a white bricked room that looks like a prison cell. The next shot it has red text that says "Bath Haus Of Gaga" now this is just like a communal bath house in Russia but it Russia these can often be associated with Whore Houses, this gives us an idea of what the video is about.

The next shot is of the pods opening and people coming out of them. This looks like the Aliens from Alien and this is linking Music videos to films. This happens quite a lot in Lady Gaga's videos. Then when they are out of the Pods they are wearing white latex clothes and the dance that they do looks like the Thriller dance for Michael Jackson and this is showing that she has taken influences from a very influential dance. Form this the video cuts to her in a bath. Lady Gaga is wearing white clothes and she has very wide eyes, this shows her innocents because she has an innocent look about her. With this there is cuts to her stood in front of a mirror wearing black. This could be that she is innocent but she always has a dark streak in her or it could be foreshadowing the end of the video.

On this part of the video you can see her spine through her clothes this shows that she is being mistreated at this Bath Haus. But she is still wearing white showing that she is still pure. After this she is sat in a bath and a man and a woman come up to and force her to drink some drugs or vodka. Even though there is a woman in power she is still being controlled by man. This substance they give her to drink makes her comply with what they want her to do and this makes links to money and that if you give someone money then they will do what you want. She is then stripped down out of her clothes in the video and this is showing that she is stripped back to basics in the media world and re built as what the men what.

She is made to dance in front of men and this shows that the media is run by men and that female artists are made more to look sexy for the male gaze rather than for the music. The women dancing in front of the men are all still wearing white and this shows that they are still pure but that will be take away very soon. In this part the men are all wearing black and this shows that the men are the more powerful people and that they aren't pure and that they are transforming women.

In this video there is lots of references to the imagery of a cat this shows that the females are more used as "pets" in the males eyes and that the women are just used as something nice to look at more than a person.

Lady Gaga is now starting to have bits of black in the clothes that she wears and this shows that she is starting to transform into what the men what and this is is bad for her because she is conforming to what the media people want and not being her own person. There is a few shots throughout this part of the song that she is in a cage. This is her showing that she feels trapped and that she can’t get out of what she has got herself into. The next bit is her surrounded by men and she is in the middle with a load of diamonds and jewellery around her this shows that if she conforms to what the men want she will make lots of money.

The very last scene in this music video is very graphic because she is laying on a bed that she has just set on fire and burnt and she is lying next to one of the men out of the video that has been burnt and is now just a skeleton. This shows that she has beaten the men and got to the top but because of what she is wearing you can tell that she has no innocence left and this is bad for her because even though she has beaten the men she has lost all of what she wants to be.

Task 2 - Lady Gaga - Paparazzi - Analysis

Lady Gaga Paparazzi video deconstruction

In the very first second of the music video. The opening transition looks like you are looking through a camera lens. This automatically makes you think that you are the paparazzi, this is coupled with the cinematic shots of the flowers that follow makes you think that you are looking through a camera. The feel of the music video right at the start isn't like a music video it’s more like a film. Then it cuts to pictures of an Italian Rivera style house that it massive and it makes you thing that the person that owns the house has a lot of money and that it is there private house. On one of the cinematic shots of the house some titles come up. These titles look more like a Pulp Fiction style titles. This adds to the movie feel of the video. Then it cuts to shots of in the house and there is money and diamond jewellery everywhere. On the money there is a picture of Lady Gaga herself, this shows that she is the one with the money because she has her own currency.

When you finally see the people in the video they are on the bed about to have sex. They are surrounded in empty bottles and money. This shows that they might have had a party beforehand and this is the aftermath of it. This is confirmed from the shot of the balcony where you see a table full of alcohol and food. This shows that they had a party before the video. When the 2 people are lying on the bed they speak to each other in Swedish. This shows the regional identity of the 2 main people in the video. This links to the wider world and will draw more people
from different countries into watching the video.

There are statues around the house and this represents art which is something that Lady Gaga is big on. She is a big fan of art and she is art herself with some of the dresses she wears. At this point the 2 characters are on the balcony and then you see the guy look off into the camera and there is some snapping noises like a camera and the effect looks like this is pictures being taken. They are being watch by the paparazzi. This is used to show the struggle that all celebrities have because they can’t do anything in there private life because the paparazzi will catch them because they are always being watched. Then in the video the guy pushes Lady Gaga off the balcony but this is caught by the paparazzi but it looks like Lady Gaga falls off. This is done to show that if celebrities are caught doing something in their private life they will be "slaughtered" by the public because it will get out. But on the flip side of this there is the Guy who is with the celebrity and this give him exposure and makes him famous.

After she hits the floor the paparazzi just crowd around her taking photos of her but no one helps her. This shows that the paparazzi don't care about the celebrities that they are exposing. There are newspaper articles that pop up on screen then and these all say about Lady Gaga not being about to sing again. Then the video cuts to her being in a wheelchair and 3 girls helping her. This can be takes 1 of 2 ways, she is either making fun out of people in wheelchairs, or she is supporting awareness for people with disabilities. Either way it makes you feel sorry for her. After a while she stands up on crutches and this is her way of saying that nothing is impossible and even if you get knocked down from the top you can always get back there again.

Throughout the video there are different flashbacks of dead bodies that look like the people have committed suicide and this could be linked to the paparazzi and that they have drove the people to do this by exposing their private life and making them have a down fall. This could be one of the reasons for the images that flash up. It could also be linked to the fact that if someone is famous then they can get away with murder and Lady Gaga could be connoting that this is wrong and it shouldn't have to be this way. Furthermore it could connote the pressures of women in the entertainment business because all of the images of the people are of women and this could be another meaning of the graphic images.

Intertwined with the flash backs of dead bodies. There is Lady Gaga sexually moving around on a sofa. This could be done for multiply reasons. One of which is for the Male Gaze aspect of it. This would draw men into watching to watch the music video. The other reason could be to show what people expect from women in the entertainment business and this could be something that Lady Gaga is trying to promote that this shouldn't happen.

Towards the end of the video she has a split in her hair colour. Part of it is white and part of it is black. This makes her look like Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians. This could be done to show that she is going to do something bad at the end of the video. The hair colours could also connote that she is have good with a dark streak with in her. The dark streak could mean that is going to do something bad. Her back is mostly against the wall and this shows that she has been a victim of the Paparazzi. At the very end of the video she poisons the guy from the beginning and kills him. She gets arrested but then there is flashes of newspaper headlines that say she is innocent. This shows that if you are famous you can get away with murder and it also shows double standards because when she was nearly killed it was her fault for falling off but when she kills someone it’s not her fault.

All in all the music video is more like a film in the way it is set out and the way it tells a story but it all links in to the music. Celebrities these days don't get a break because they are constantly in the eye of the public and the paparazzi will be there if they make a mistake. But this video also shows that if you are famous that you can get away with murder and this shouldn't be the case. It is an issue raised in this video and it is something than needs addressing.