FRAME ANALYSIS

Bryony Johnson

This mid shot is used to place emphasis on the artist, Ariana Grande. The shot clearly shows Grande’s face as she pulls a cheeky expression, this suggests to the audience that she is a fun, likeable person, which is conventional for artists in the pop genre. The mid shot is also used so that the background is visible. The audience can see that in the background, the title of the song “Baby I” has been spray painted onto the walls. Bright colours are conventionally used in pop music videos; the colour yellow connotes happiness, which is promoted through the upbeat tempo of the song.

TLC – Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg

LL Cool J - Hush

Furthermore the iconography of graffiti is often used in R&B music videos, especially from the 90s, which is an era that inspired this song and some of Grande’s other songs. This can be seen in the 90s R&B song ‘Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg’ by TLC. Furthermore in LL Cool J’s video for ‘Hush’, we can see the title of the song spray painted on the wall he is standing against, just like in Grande’s video. This is also seen in Victoria Justice’s pop video for ‘Gold’. Miley Cyrus’ ‘Party in the USA’ is another example of a pop song with the graffiti convention.

Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA

Victoria Justice - Gold

This close up shot is used to again draw emphasis on the artist and also to show her emotions. In this shot we can see that Grande is quite happy which leads the audience to feel the same way. This is quite a conventional emotion to be depicted through pop music as the songs are usually very upbeat. Moreover she is denoted mouthing the lyrics to her song whilst on the telephone as if she is singing to her “baby”.

Pussycat Dolls - StickwituBlack Eyed Peas – Shut Up

Little Mix – How Ya Doin

The convention of being on the phone is shown in many other Pop and R&B music videos. The videos shown on the left and the right are similar to the Baby I video whereby the artists are shown in their bedrooms as well as being on the phone.

Bow Wow & Ciara – Like You

Christina Aguilera – Come On Over

A long shot is used here, which shows the audience more mise en scene within the scene. The shot draws attention to Grande and introduces her as a style icon since you can see her whole outfit. Furthermore, Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory can be applied here, since the audience will be drawn to Grande’s legs. We can also see there are people surrounding Grande and staring at her. This leads the audience to believe that she is desirable. It is quite conventional to depict female pop artists in this way. For example a similar scene can be seen in the shots below.

Cheryl Cole – Call My Name Destiny’s Child – Lose My Breath

This shot shows a conventional setting of a party. Grande is also denoted clapping along to the beat of her song. The party scene is shown in many different pop songs, even if it doesn’t directly relate to the lyrics of the song, for example Grande’s song ‘Baby I’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘22’ are about love and relationships, yet the videos are still set at a party. This is used to promote the song as fun and it encourages people to have the same fun attitude. Additionally, these artists use the party scene convention to appeal to their teenaged audience.

In these videos, the lighting is quite similar, whereby the background is dark, but the artist appears illuminated. This again draws attention to the artist.

Selena Gomez - Birthday Taylor Swift - 22

Ke$ha – Tik Tok Lady Gaga – Just Dance

It is very conventional for music videos to include choreographed dance routines. This can be seen within Grande’s video for ‘Baby I’ as denoted in the two screenshots above. In the first shot we can see that Grande herself is dancing, and in the second shot we see professional dancers.

Little Mix - Wings Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA

Rita Ora – Hot Right Now

In these two videos we see the main artist(s) dancing alongside backing dancers. This is very conventional in music videos.

In this video we see the professional dancers on their own, similarly to in Grande’s video.

Star Motifs!

Here we can see one of Grande’s star motifs which is her hair being in the half up, half down style. This can also be seen in Grande’s videos for ‘The Way’ and ‘Right There’.

Star Motifs!

In this shot we see another star motif, where Grande dances with her hands in the air. This again can be seen in the videos for ‘The Way’ and ‘Right There’.