Similar Texts: Lady Marmalade

Lady Marmalade is a cover of a song by the girl group Labelle in 1974. Originally a soul/funk track, it was remixed into a more modern song by Missy Elliott in 2001 for the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack, with the vocals split between popular female singers Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Mya and rapper Lil' Kim. The song has always come under scrutiny for it's sexually aggressive chorus "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi c'est soir?", which translates into English as "would you like to sleep with me tonight?". This is also the song we feel is most similar to our own.

The video has a very sexually visual theme to it as it falls back on the film from which the soundtrack is from. The Moulin Rouge was well known all over the world for it's dancers and the invention of the can-can dance by the Parisian courtesans. Because of this the costumes are very revealing and are more often than not just considered lingerie. This is reflective of the lyrics as they are singing about a prostitute picking up a customer for the night, especially  when P!nk sings the line

"He sat in her boudoir while she freshened up

Boy drank all that magnolia wine"

she is seen sitting at a make up table, as is Aguilera in a cutaway, before moving to the bed seen in the background for the following line

"On her black satin sheets is where he started to freak, yeah"

Similar Artist and Text: Christina Aguilera's Stripped

Over the span of her career Christina Aguilera has released albums similar to Jessie J's Who You Are. A notable example is Stripped, released in 2002.

Both album covers feature the artists with their arms above their heads. This could be seen as a submissive sexual invitation, relating back to Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. However with Stripped it is seen as a literal invitation when seen in conjunction with the lyrics on the record. The image is in black and white, which may indicate that some of the views she expresses on the album are very straight forwards, having no 'grey area' to their interpretation. The image, a long wide shot showing her entire body, has most likely been utilised in order to show off her body in a sexual manner, enhanced by the fact she is not wearing a top or bra and instead has long (and obviously blonde) extensions covering her bare breasts, as well as a pair of leather-esque trousers.

The look which has been encompassed on the album cover can be seen throughout the singles released from the record, save Beautiful which, like Who You Are's lead track with the same name, has a more demure video and theme about personal identity. The lead single for Stripped, "Dirrty" has been heavily criticized for being overly sexual both lyrically and visually. However it is this sexuality that is the binding motif between the album and its singles, making them obviously a part of her musical change, as before she was seen as a very clean cut artist. Despite criticisms the song was nominated for three different Grammy Awards, enforcing the point that sex sells.

As the album was released 10 years ago it is difficult to find a magazine advert for its release. I did however find the tour poster that accompanied the release. It followed a very common theme among tours that coincide with the release of a new album in that uses the album cover as its main image. This helps it tie in with everything else.

Similar Texts: Maroon 5's Songs About Jane album cover

Songs About Jane is the debut album by Maroon 5, released in 2002. This album cover features no real person but instead has an artists' impression of a nude woman. Her flowing hair covers parts of her body, giving the impression she could represent Eve from the Old Testament of the Bible, with the red colour scheme connoting lust and danger. She is holding a jewel encrusted box from which there are dark tendrils of shadow escaping. This probably represents Pandora's Box, and coupled with the title of the record the viewer can assume the woman depicted is "Jane" and that she may be a very troublesome character. This is both emphasised by the red colour scale and contradicted by the flowers adorning her hair, which contrastly makes her seem like a gentle character. The only writing on the sleeve is the names of the band and the record. This could be because their fans do not need an image of the band to recognise the album. The fonts are simple and easy to read, therefore not detracting attention from the image presented.

The Genre Of Our Production And Its Codes And Conventions

The genre of our production is that of pop. The pop genre has the most common codes and conventions of all genres due to it being the most popular genre throughout the world.

Most pop videos will:-

• Be edited to the beat
• Be fast paced
• Have a dance routine
• Have close ups of the performer
• Have a variety of shots but more low angle shots than any other to simulate a live performance
• Use effects
• Contain screens within screens

We will be following the usually codes and conventions of the pop genre so will be trying to include all of the above in our production. This will hopefully give an authentic feel to our production so that it will seem like something you would see on everyday T.V or YouTube etc...

A Shot From Cheryl Cole's Pop Music Video "Under The Sun"

Who Is Our Artist And Target Audience?

The artist we've choosen is easily aspirational and relatable to our target audience.
They're aspirational due to the performance element and career status of a celebrity, which most girls included in our target audience want to have. This can include a certain fashion, the wealth or popularity. Many try to also physically look like artists they look up to, such as copying hair styles and tattoos. 

Our target audience consists of:

• 14-18 year olds
• Females
• Urban (Cities)
• Lower and middle class
• Education level of secondary school/college

Interests and lifestyle of target audience:

• Pop music
• Xfactor
• Friends
• Socialising
• Facebook/Twitter

Video Idea

Our idea for the production is heavily influenced by cabaret and the Moulin Rouge. This is because of the musical composition. As I said before, individual instruments are distinguishable and are not ones commonly associated with the pop genre such as trumpets and saxophones. Because these made us think of a show like a cabaret in a club, we felt Lady Marmalade was lyrically a good source of comparison and inspiration to plan the video around the lyrics.

We decided on a primarily narrative based music video, with the story running backwards and a colour theme of red and black to tie together our digipack. The colour choice was decided on through a game of word association. We started on cabaret which made us think of a dark club. The club made us think of suits as a type of clothing, which led us to James Bond. From there we got the idea of gambling. With gambling we thought of poker and roulette, with the two key colours of these games being the red and black of the numbers and cards. Love is frequently described as a gamble also.

Told chronologically, our lead female is performing in her cabaret style club when she sees the male character. Over the course of the narrative she becomes more obsessed with him and begins stalking and following him, with the behaviour culminating in her kidnapping and holding him hostage in an unknown location. 

However as it is told backwards the video will start at the end, in the unknown location. A worms eye shot will track a pair of red high heeled shoes as they cross the room. There will be a shot of the male tied to the chair to make it clear a woman has kidnapped him and kept him captive.  In keeping with our theme, a red polished nail will press a button on a stereo set before cutting back to the male who is tied and blindfolded with red silk - a reference to the song title. When the song starts the captor will start singing and dancing around him in a very revealing outfit comprised of red lingerie and an open black shirt on one,  removing the blindfold and eventually sitting on his lap. This will lead back to the theory that women are only there for the visual pleasure of men; although it seems that he is passive in this sequence being bound and struggling against said bindings, her revealing outfit and sexualisation proves that it is the male who is in control because she is dancing for him and him specifically.

At the first chorus the location will change to the male being openly followed down the street by the female, who is still singing to him, along with a costume change as they are a key convention of music videos. A title will come on screen telling the audience this was maybe several hours prior. This happens again at the start of the second verse, but with a "one week ago" title in the corner of the screen. In this sequence the woman is in her bedroom and in a bathroom, getting ready to go out for the day, still in the thematic colours. We see a collage of pictures of the male on her wall. She dances slightly for the pictures and blowing a kiss to them before leaving.

At the second bridge of the song we have another time title and a new location and costume change, with the male being followed or watched again, only this time more discreetly as if the female had lost care for discretion as time went on. The second chorus is when we plan to have the video format change from colour to filtered monochrome, letting only the colour red through. The shot is in a dressing room and the female getting ready to go on stage. A shot on the mirror she is using will show a picture from the collage in the frame.

We intend to stop the music at this point and have a live action sequence of the male either going up or down a flight of stairs to enter the club where the woman will be performing. A piece of red silk will be visible in the breast pocket of the suit through the filter. When he enters the room he takes a seat closest to the stage and awaits the performance. Playing cards in poker hands are visible on the table. She comes on stage to sing to the audience and walk through them, favouring the man before returning to the stage for the final chorus, although she seem to sing only to him. The final line of the song before the music cuts will be an extreme close up of her lips at the mans ear back in the unknown location with colour returning to the scene.

After the music has finished the man will fall out of a door, dishevelled and covered in lipstick kisses. He attempts to make himself look more presentable and walks off trying to look dignified but failing. He walks past the camera and the scene fades to black.

Song Choice

We have chosen the song Sexy Silk from the soundtrack to feature film Easy A. Recorded by Jessie J under her real name Jessica Cornish, the song was specifically written for the film and this served as good reasoning for the choice. This is because there is no official video to compare it to. It also means that creativity can be used freely without gathering any similarities in look or performance to the original. 

The lyrics to the song are very similar to those of other songs of its genre, as they are overtly sexual in nature. They are primarily of a woman professing her desire, and eventual love, for the male in question. Specifically, the lyrics state that she goes from merely thinking she might "like" him at the end of the first chorus to thinking she thinks she may "love" him by the end of the song. This plays into regular stereotypes that women cannot control their emotions and therefore are determined to belong to a man.  

Despite this the musical composition of the song is incredibly different in that some of the instruments involved are not typically associated with pop music, such as trumpets and saxophones. This helped with the idea for the performance of the production, as it is reminiscent of the song Lady Marmalade by Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Mya and Lil' Kim. The song was also used on a soundtrack, although it has an existing video. It was the existing video, along with the composition and other ideas that gave me the outline for the video idea, which shall be explained in detail later in this blog.

 The theme of women lusting after a man in pop and R&B music is very common as, because of society being after the post-feminist movement, more and more female performers are using the theme and having a strong character in themselves in spite of the lyrical content. This can clearly be seen in the video for Toxic by Britney Spears. 

She wears 4 different outfits, each highly sexualised and at different stages of power, her vixen character with the black hair has more power than the stewerdess even though they are both using their bodies to get what they want. Similarly our performer will use her body to get what she wants in motion with the lyrics. 

The lyrics to our song are overtly sexual, especially at the beginning of the song where they read "I'll be your pussycat licking your milk right now", which has very obvious connotations of oral sex. Connoting sex is very common within music videos, both visually and lyrically, as is even simulating it.

Goodwin's Theory On Music Videos

Goodwin's theory is the theory of exhibitionism. Exhibitionism is the sexulisation and objectification of women to make them seem as if they are more powerful, in control and independent in the patriarchal society we live in today. This is done through specific camera shots and editing that will focus on particular areas on the female artists body as well as the mise-en-scene of a provactive attire. It also links in to voyeurism, the objectification of women and their bodies, and the notion of being watched which is usually seen in music videos through the use of screens within screens. Goodwin argues that the female performer is frequently objectified principally for display purposes, often through a combination of camera work and editing with fragmented body shots emphasising a sexualised treatment of the star.

Types Of Music Videos

There are three types of music video. They are ones of a narrative perspective, a performance or concept videos.

Narrative videos tell the story of the song and keeps the viewer/listener engaged via their attention being drawn to the story. They mostly use actors in these narrative videos for instance in "Love The Way You Lie" by Eminem ft. Rihanna although occasionally the artist(s) themselves will star in their own videos.

Performance videos simply show the artist performing at their best while the song is played out. A rock band may be playing shown playing instruments and performing their song or it may simply just be a live performance. Due to the camera and audience focusing mainly and continuously on the group or artist their is a greater variety of shots and camera angles to liven things up a bit and engage the viewers at a greater level. An example of this is "Paris" by Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Lastly we have concept videos which aren't very common due to their odd nature. A prime example of this is Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart".

A Background On Music Videos

Music videos were invented to increase sales of the song and also to add a visual representation to the artist. The era of music videos began in 1975 with Queen and their song "Bohemian Rhapsody". This was a massive success for the band and boosted their popularity higher than ever. Once other artists noticed the spark this had created within the music industry they began to follow in Queen's footsteps and iconic videos such as "Thriller" by Michael Jackson and "Take On Me" by Aha were created, as well as "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles; the first ever video shown on MTV.  Thus, the music video industry was born.