Analysis of Music Video 1 (Full)

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Watch = The Fear By Lily Allen Music Video

Name of Track - The Fear
Artist/Director - Lily Allen

I have found that the type of genre of the video that I am analysing ‘The Fear by Lily Allen’ is a pop based video. This is told by the representations of wealth that is typical used in pop videos. The use of the setting the video in a huge mansion implies this by that living or setting in a mansion represents someone who may have a lot of wealth, high status and money. Also the use of using dancing waiters when Lily Allen is dancing implies waiters are typically known for working for someone who has wealth and money. Also the use of decorated furniture, cakes and balloons when Lily Allen is looking in the mirror, due to that you can see that someone must have took some time decorating this objects, this represents that theses kind of objects would only belong to someone with wealth, again represents wealth. Also the use of the a straight carpet when Lily Allen is dancing with the waiters this could represent Lily Allen’s fame as symbolically represented by the use of walking down a red carpet.

At the beginning of the video Lily Allen’s lyrics are illustrated ‘Want lots of money’, by the visuals of Lily Allen set singing from a caravan which could represent a not a wealthy home life. By this setting this could represent what Lily Allen home life could have been, a not so wealthy home life and represent what she may have dreamt in the past. Then by changing the scene next to a huge mansion now shows us what she has now. The only contradictory in this setting with the caravan is that Lily Allen herself, she is dressed up as a normal middle class person, by this contradicts with the typical setting of a caravan due to that you would expect someone who is famous like Lily Allen to be living in a caravan. The actual music video is called ‘The Fear,’ but this contradicts the visuals by that not at one point during the video that Lily Allen acts scared. She acts more like she is unsure how to act by that she is always putting on a front. This is also shown from the lyrics of ‘Not sure how to feel anymore’ and a bird eye view spinning shot of lily is used on those lyrics to make the audience feel unsure as well. The close up shot of the toy car is used to amplify the lyrics, ‘Fast cars.’ So due to that the producers have not use a real car but a toy car, this could represent childhood dreams.

When the main choruses beginning them always cut at a important part or change in visuals to identify and amplify the main lyrics. In a marketing sense to make the audience remember the lyrics of the main chorus so they will go and buy the song or album. Also by doing this at the chorus there is a lot faster beat, therefore the visuals have to be a lot faster beat, by this is shown through dancing with Lily Allen and the waiters. Then back to the verses, the pace is a lot slower so only visual of Lily Allen moving around the mansion or looking in a mirror are used here.

By the use of using Lily Allen in this video, this makes all our focus on Lily Allen and her music. Therefore using the artist in their video is a way of first getting the audience interested in the video due to that they recognise the artist and secondly gets the audience able to more likely remember the artist and the song so therefore has more chance in selling the song. The image that is being offered about the artist is that she is very wealthy and famous, this is shown from Lily Allen being made up well, with hair neatly straightened, make up applied, use of a good looking dress, therefore tells us that she has been made up by other people. The expressions that Lily Allen offers to the audience at the beginning is limited due to that she is putting on a front and not acting natural ‘programme to function’ which could almost be mechanical therefore could represent what the famous life has done to her. Then by the end when Lily Allen starts pushing back the life like presents and starts to walk out of the mansion, most of her expressions have come back being more natural, ‘what’s right, what’s real’. Comparing this video to previous videos that Lily Allen has made she is still wearing the same types of dresses, which could show us that she has not changed. But to her previous videos being set in London, Lily Allen has always shown herself to be a London City girl. But with the use of a mansion in this video and not being set in London this makes us focus more on that the famous side of Lily Allen now and I think this may have been the intended purpose of this video, to represent what the celebrity life has effected Lily Allen and her change in image by becoming famous.

In this video I do not think that there is a lot of reference of notion to looking due to that Lily Allen is mainly covered up. Due to that Lily Allen is wearing a dress this represents femininity and that due to that Lily Allen is known to being sexy the dress can show off her curves which therefore could represent being sexy. Also at the beginning with the lyrics ‘Shameless’ Lily Allen uses a hand gesture to cover herself up, but by doing this shows shyness, but contradicts with the lyrics of being shameless.

Lily Allen in the video has very long straight black hair with a fringe and heavy black make up eyes, which is Lily Allen’s typical image, which therefore lets the audience recognise Lily Allen more quickly. The use of a sexy dress to show off her curves could represent a sex symbol.

I think that this video is narrative based due to scenes of Lily Allen looking at the camera singing for example when Lily Allen is in the caravan and is singing to the camera. I also think that the video is performance based due to that the use of dancing and acting within the video of when Lily Allen is dancing with the waiters and life like presents boxes.

My conclusion to this video is that this video is a pop video which is based on wealth and fame. I think that the main purpose of this video was to show the effects of becoming famous and what has happened to Lily Allen herself. It could also could be taken as a video to warm the public or the younger generation of when becoming famous the good and bad sides of being a celebrity