I am analysing Katy Perry’s video to Waking up in Vegas, directed by Joseph Kahn. The genre of this song is Pop/Rock. Nowadays genres are converged as they often do not fit just one of the genre characteristics. The term ‘pop’ used to be very limited, whereas now it’s very broad in terms of genre. ‘Waking up in Vegas’ has been categorized with pop/rock because of the elements of ‘rock instruments’ used in the song such as guitars and drums.
The general genre characteristic of Pop (popular) music is that it intends to encourage dancing, or uses dance beats or dance orientated rhythms. It should have ‘artistic’ qualities and an emphasis on recording, production and technology over live performance. Also, most importantly pop music/videos tend to follow recent and existing trends. This is important as it shows us who the main target audiences of pop music are... Such as teenagers/young adults who are always in the centre of existing trends. A lot of pop music videos are very vibrant, colourful and bold, including a lot of costume and scene changes of the artist/band.
In Waking up in Vegas, the artist Katy Perry has several costume changes that are shown through out the video back and forth.
The first of her outfits is a glamorous red ball gown that is worn at the beginning. The colour of her costume in this scene is very important because the dominant colours of the whole video is red and black – which are the colours we associate with Vegas and roulette. Sophistication and glamour are the connotations of red, representing Katy as very glam in her video. The other outfits that she wears are a ‘street’ style outfit (when she is gambling), a silver sequinned outfit with a Barbie pink blazer and diamond hooped earrings, a ‘queen of hearts’ card outfit, 2 ‘frapper girl’ style outfits and lastly glittery hot pants (when she’s in the money booth). All these outfits are significant to her video, and link the lyrics and visuals together.
The general genre characteristic of Pop (popular) music is that it intends to encourage dancing, or uses dance beats or dance orientated rhythms. It should have ‘artistic’ qualities and an emphasis on recording, production and technology over live performance. Also, most importantly pop music/videos tend to follow recent and existing trends. This is important as it shows us who the main target audiences of pop music are... Such as teenagers/young adults who are always in the centre of existing trends. A lot of pop music videos are very vibrant, colourful and bold, including a lot of costume and scene changes of the artist/band.
In Waking up in Vegas, the artist Katy Perry has several costume changes that are shown through out the video back and forth.
The first of her outfits is a glamorous red ball gown that is worn at the beginning. The colour of her costume in this scene is very important because the dominant colours of the whole video is red and black – which are the colours we associate with Vegas and roulette. Sophistication and glamour are the connotations of red, representing Katy as very glam in her video. The other outfits that she wears are a ‘street’ style outfit (when she is gambling), a silver sequinned outfit with a Barbie pink blazer and diamond hooped earrings, a ‘queen of hearts’ card outfit, 2 ‘frapper girl’ style outfits and lastly glittery hot pants (when she’s in the money booth). All these outfits are significant to her video, and link the lyrics and visuals together.
There is a very close relationship between the lyrics and visuals in the video as they link and go together very well. The visuals tell the story along with the lyrics. For example when Katy and her boyfriend are in a little white chapel style church getting married the lyrics say ‘Did we get hitched last night? Dressed up like Elvis. Why am I wearing, your class ring’. She sings these lyrics and points out the ‘class ring’ on her marriage finger whilst an Elvis impersonator is in the background. This is a typical stereotype of Vegas, (having a last minute marriages and not remembering in the morning ect).
The music also links with the visuals as the video cuts to the beat of the song. The fast pace of the beat links with the quick editing and shots. The video changes pace with the music. For example towards the end of the song the pace starts to slow down, the video doesn’t cut to other scenes and just focuses on one scene rather than loads at the same time.
There are many close ups of Katy throughout the whole of the video, making her the focal point of the whole video. There is voyeurism used in the song, when Katy is driving the Lamborghini, she looks at her iPod that is plugged into the car and the screen shows the song ‘Waking up in Vegas’ and her album cover. This is as if she is listening along to the song when we are, and also promoting her album/song and herself. The video relates to other video’s of the artists such as ‘Hot n Cold’, ‘California girls’ and her recent video ‘Last Friday Night’, as it is very fun and Katy seems to always play a very fun character in all of her video’s especially the ones I mentioned.
The music also links with the visuals as the video cuts to the beat of the song. The fast pace of the beat links with the quick editing and shots. The video changes pace with the music. For example towards the end of the song the pace starts to slow down, the video doesn’t cut to other scenes and just focuses on one scene rather than loads at the same time.
There are many close ups of Katy throughout the whole of the video, making her the focal point of the whole video. There is voyeurism used in the song, when Katy is driving the Lamborghini, she looks at her iPod that is plugged into the car and the screen shows the song ‘Waking up in Vegas’ and her album cover. This is as if she is listening along to the song when we are, and also promoting her album/song and herself. The video relates to other video’s of the artists such as ‘Hot n Cold’, ‘California girls’ and her recent video ‘Last Friday Night’, as it is very fun and Katy seems to always play a very fun character in all of her video’s especially the ones I mentioned.
In this video Katy is obviously portrayed as an icon and someone her fans should look up to, and unlike most female artists, she is not on sexual display like other artists, as she is displayed more as a icon and suitable for all ages to watch eg children. This is important because it links with the genre of music, as a lot of ‘pop’ music artists have to be suitable for a younger target audience, as they are more likely to like the genre.
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