Lady Gaga is known for an independent yet sexualised image. Her star persona consists of:weird, quirky outfits, plantium blonde hair and a strong belting voice. In pop music, use of bright colours.
Representation: She is a female that challanges conventions: Very agggressive in perfomance, strong, independent female simliar to christina aguleria and beyonce. Asscioated with females with big voices.
Codes and conventions: blonde hair (presents her as blondes have more fun/glamourous)and quirky outfits (reflecting individuality). Towards the beginning, her image was more party, where she wore more glitter and sparkling, representing a good time. However, as her star persona grew, the more dramatuc her makeup became and wore more strange outfits to challenge conventions of pop music, such as the infamous meat dress. It also to publicise the star. Gender: although portrayed as confident and independent,conforms that she is sexualised, by wearing revealing outfits and in so conforming to exhibitsiom.
Lady Gaga-Telephone
'Telephone' is a narrative based video that is a good example of the star's persona and strong uses of intertextuality. Gaga develops conventions of the pop genre by wearing quirky outfits that defines her star persona. This also reflects her image as an independent woman, who is often associated with fellow female artists such as Beyonce and Christina Alguilera with big voices. The lyrics of telephone also amplifies this image, 'You should've of made some plans...I'm kinda busy'. This creates the impression that she is independent and in charge of herself and music for that matter.
Mise-en-scene: The use of bright colours such as blues, yellows and bright purples conform to the pop genre and is used for costume (ie the blue telephone hat) or props towards the end of the video (the bright yellow car). This not only draws attention to the audience but also to reflects the fun, fast pace energy of the song. However at the beginning of the video, it is set in a prison, which consists of mostly greys and blacks. Gaga's outfit also consists of dark colours and leather which is more asscioated with the metal genre. This subverts the conventions of colours in pop and can also been seen as a homage to Madonna in which she wore pvc in pop, for the video 'Express yourself', which also subverted pop conventions. It also has an americana theme throughout the video. The location includes a diner to reflect an everyday place that has become more glamoursied with the stars presence through their bright costumes. This could connote that the artist music has the ability to glamourise anywhere with her music and once again reinforcing the star persona of being glamourous. The use of blues, red, and whites also references the american flag and creates a sense of patriotism. This is achieved via costume where Gaga and Beyonce are wearing the american flag but in a sexualised way, either in a short dress or underwear. This conforms to the gender convention where lead female artists are more sexualised in mainstream music. Lady Gaga is also a key example of exhibitionism, denoting of revealing, quirky outfits and dancing provoctivatley. This is especially apparent with the use of CUs of her body such as her chest and bum when she is dancing in the leather underwear. Another good example is where the artist is wearing yellow police tape and revealing a lot of her body. This supports the star persona that Gaga wears strange outfits to make an statement, such as the meat dress at the VMA. Gaga code and conventions also are within the video, they consists of dramatic makeup, quirky, elaborate outfits, bleached blonde hair and proactive outfits.
Editing: Use of fast pace editing, in time with music tempo, to maintain an energetic energy within the video. There is also use of special effects such as star transitions and comic book style typography. aplit screens, adds to fast pace and energy. Slower pace scenes without the music, drama scenes. Use of bright colour typograpghy and tranistions such as purple stars to mark sections of video (lets make a sandich parodies cooking show) Denoted are subtitles used in dinner scene,when the performers are not speaking, conforms to star persona of being quirky and developing the pop genre. Also the use of stars as transistions conform to a comic book and americana feel but also conforms to gender, where stars is more accoisated with females.
Cinematograpghy: Lots of beauty shots of Gaga, which conforms to the conventions of music videos but also beauty shots of Beyonce, although not as many. Long shots, which are not used often in music videos are used to establish new setting, which is more of a convention of film. This was the director's intention as the video is portrayed as a short film. There are sereval syngeries within the video including Vodaphone where the singer is denoted holding the phone. The use of close ups, gives full exposure to the brand. Gender: Close ups of body parts ie clevage and legs, conforms to exhibitiosm theory where women are viewed as sexual objects. A key example is where the artist is in a cell covered in police tape, posing near a bed in a suggestive manner. This image is reinforced where the artist is performing in a cell, possibly holding a sexual object. This is a key example of the artist being sexualised, holding possible sexual object in cell. This could be interpreted as conforming to representation of females, although it seems that the artist is in control of the situation and in so developing it.
Intertextuality: 'Telephone' follows from previous narrative video 'Paparizzi'. This also to star persona, as the artist is well known for elebroate extended length videos, which not only excites fans and intrigues a wider audience to watch the video but also promotes repeatiblity due to the ever expanding narrative within the two videos and possibly a third one. This is reinforced with 'To be continued' at the end. Props also links to interxtuality where the'Pussy wagaon' is directly taken from well known film 'Kill Bill', once again expanding her music audience to film lovers. The plotline is somewhat silimar to Thelma and Louise, another film, where the two protagonist are on the run for murders. This is similar in the 'Telephone' video where Beyonce and Lady Gaga are runaways from jail murder people and drive off hand in hand, directly referncing the film at the end.
There is also a lot of syngery with other well known brands such as polarid and Coke. Since it appears that the artist has not appear in the products adverts, it could be suggested that they may have supported the funding the video and in exchange are adveristed. The most effective synergy however is having Beyonce as guest vocals. Using another artist with a huge star persona, gives the artists more exposure and increases their star persona even more by working with other well known stars. This is evident as Gaga had previously worked with Beyonce on her single Videophone which was released close to Telephone.
Ciara
While Gaga confroms to some gender conventions,Ciara in this video subvert this. For example, 'Like a Boy', the artist puts on masculine traits in this video, which illustartes and amplifies the lyrics. The costumes include the artist wearing vest, chains and baggy trousers, all masculine clothing, subverting gender conventions of women in dresses but conforms the conventions of an r'n'b video. The aritsts also use performance to reinforce this where she grabs her crotch, as males would do in 'r'n'b; videos. This is contrasted during a section of the video where two characters (both the artist) represents male and female. The female character confroms to the female gender where she is denoted wearing a white dress, showing off her legs and have long curly hair. This could also be seen as intertexualty to Marlilyn Monore in the film 'Seven Year Itch', who was well known for being feminine. As the male character, she is denoted of wearing conorows and wearing dark clothing, as a female performer this subverts conventions of gender.
cine: beauty shots both as man and woman. Long shots as artist as man and woman at same time for comaparasion. The editing uses cross cutting to reinforce the differences between male and female, although there are longer takes on her as a male, which again subverts gender roles.
The video is more conceptual video, where the main theme is where the female character is wondering what's it like to be a man. At the beginning sitting in chair like man, although she pushes the man about conforming to her star persona as an independent female, however at the end, she kisses the male, conforming back to gender convention that women are loving towards their man. The use of black and white video also suggest the video and message is to be taken seriously.
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