Analysis of a Music Video

The Music video Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) by Katy Perry utilises, Flashbacks, Dream sequences and Different POVs in order to fully convey the complications of teenage relationships. The Music video has a clip before and after the actual music video in order to provide insight/context to the video's narrative/story. The narrative itself is told in a retrospective manner, similar to an Episodic narrative, as the main character 'Kathy' re-lives the events of the previous night.


Katy’s character is the stereotypical geek who goes through an amazing makeover allowing her to gain the attention of her ‘Jock super-crush’, thus following elements of an American teen-romance, this establishes the Disequilibrium. The 'Geeky' boy is in love with Katy and at the end of the narrative, as is the typical cliché; he turns out to be the better option for her hence the restoration of a new equilibrium, in the ending clip, much similar to the first.

The Dream sequences are told from his POV with the costumes emphasising their positions for comedic effect, whereas the rest of the video is told from Katy’s perspective.  The memorable and well-known American teen party-next-door atmosphere is satisfied in the form of Rebecca Black who takes on the role of the ‘popular girl’ who using Propp’s Character theory serves as the Donor, Helper and the Dispatcher. However in reference to Goffman's character theory she would be named more appropriately as a 'Deuteragonist' (secondary character).


The constant Media references within the video work as forms of Intertextuality; Black’s song 'Friday' has been named one of the worst songs and the term T.G.I.F is a world-renowned phrase/abbreviation for 'Thank God Its Friday'. The Music Video will serve as a means to raise awareness of both artists, as well as boost the sales of their music individually.

Analysis of CD Covers...

The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night (1964):  The Beatles are one of the most iconic bands of the Music industry and although this was not one of their most iconic album covers, I think it was still one of the most interesting. A Hard Day’s Night is the third Beatle album and the first of which was published in the year of 1964.

Each band member was their own personality despite the way they were always grouped together. This Album cover strives to emphasise this fact by showing each member in a series of different moods. John Lennon is seriously mocking throughout his photographs, which is how many of his colleagues remembered him. Paul McCartney is shown to be the joker of the band whilst Ringo comes across as more pensive. George Harrison however is the most interesting as he is blacked out in the third picture and shown smoking in the fifth. This may be due to the fact that George was the youngest member of the band and wanted to be portray the band as most young people are: as rebellious. The blacked out image may be in reference to his mysterious/hidden side as not many people knew how spiritual he was at the time and this conflicted with his rock star image.

The different images were imperative to the way The Beatles were viewed, it showed that The Beatles were able to have fun and let loose rather than becoming uptight and/or overconfident, and this stressed on their humble origins as average boys from Liverpool. The images are in black and white which is the way most people saw The Beatles: they either loved them or hated them, not to mention that the two colours give a classic appeal to the band suggesting they were there to stay and make an impact.

The cover is also an example of how far the industry has come and how music business has evolved in the last 40 years or so. The album cover advertises not only the band but their Label as well. No special editing has been used on this cover as such software was not available at the time.

Paramore's Brand New Eyes (2010): Paramore’s Brand new eyes album cover is very much different to that of their previous album Riot. To begin with the imagery is a lot simpler to look at in comparison as the Riot cover was much busier and more monotone to look at. The colour coordination of this cover is brighter and cleaner in comparison suggesting that the ‘new eyes’ of the band is a metaphor for the bands’ new, fresh start. These connotations are very important to the history of the band as during 2010 there were many rumours surrounding the possible break-up of the band; not to mention that by this time they knew that the Farro brothers would be leaving and that this was their last album together as a band.

The butterfly may be significant of their relationship with one another, which –as symbolised by the torn right wing, may be quite fragile, but equally beautiful. The separation of parts once again is iconic of the hardships each member faced together as a band resulting in the isolation they all felt. The colours of the butterfly hold their own significance, as black is representatitive of their musical genre and the ‘dark’ period they faced as a band. The plain and simple background has been utilised deliberately in order to draw attention to the butterfly thus, making the cover all the more effective.

Madonna's Confessions on the Dance floor (2005):

Research into Music Videos

Research into music videos

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Weekly Diary 1

This week I started formulating ideas and plans for my music video. I drew a storyboard for potential songs and the concepts I came up with and I will upload this soon.
My resource audit and first stage of research have both been completed also but I'll be adding to them as I go on in case I have something new and interesting which I feel would be important to the project.
The Resource audit was a list of possible resources I had or could use within my music video and this will help me to maximise the potential concept of my idea. The First Stage of Research however was done to get me to understand the importance,development and the history of music videos.

Resource Audit

My resource audit is basically a list of all th possible resources I have or that I could use for my music video.


People: Pryal, Avni, Camille, Damini, Sneh, Kavita, Sara, Arti, Anjli, Anisa, Danielle, Aidan, Stephen and Parveen.


Crew: Aidan, Danielle, Stephen and Parveen


Possible Settings/Places: Venue 5, Central, Uxbridge, Ruislip Lido, Harrow, Someone’s house, School.


Software/Technology: Digital Cameras, Video cameras, Green Screen, Adobe Premier, Adobe After Effects.


Possible Songs: Naa Rakiye-Jassi Sidhu, Last Friday Night Katy Perry, Lets Dance-Juggy D Jay Sean Rishi rich, Lazy Song- Bruno Mars.

Media Project Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
· a website homepage for the band;
· a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
· a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

I have chosen this Brief for my A2 project because I believe it will be an interesting experience for me both as a student and an individual. As a Student I've never had the chance to make a music video before so it will be an educational experience which will allow me todevelop my skills as a media student. I also think that personally, it will be fun to make a music video :)

Looking at the length and size of the task I do anticipate some problems (mainly the maintenance and upkeeping of my Blog and learning to handle the technical side of Production.) However I do believe the creative aspects of the project will present an easier target for me to reach.