MY FAVOURITE

MUSIC

VIDEO

One of my favourite music videos is Ellie Goulding’s On My Mind. The song is all about an ex boyfriend of Ellie’s and mixed emotions she has towards the relationship. The music video illustrates the meaning of the song by telling the story of a relationship between two people turning sour and uses different locations/settings in order to show the feelings that Ellie has about the relationship. For example the video uses a gambling theme and uses Las Vegas to signify that. The fact that gambling is shown can express the fact that Ellie feels like she is taking a risk with the relationship as gambling denotes taking a risk or chance. The lyrics to the song suggest that even though Ellie doesn’t have feelings for her ex anymore she is hung up on him in her head as the line ‘But my heart don’t understand why I got you on my mind” suggests clearly. The line in the song ‘You got yourself in a dangerous zone, but we both got the fear, fear of being alone’ hints that from the start she had doubts about the relationship being healthy.

In the video a close up shot and long shot shows Ellie pulling an expressionless face while the man playing her boyfriend/lover shouts and her and storms around the room, showing his anger. This indicates that she is feeling trapped in the relationship and feels like she is being controlled as she is forced to stay quiet while the male character yells at her.

Later on in the video Ellie is seen being joined by a friend while they are both riding horses towards the casino that her boyfriend owns. This suggests that Ellie has had enough and is eager to seek revenge on her boyfriend and gain the upper hand as the fact that she is riding a horse suggest that she is ready for a battle/fight as normally these are the connotations associated with horses. Also at the end of the video a long shot is used to show Ellie riding away from the casino. This can used as a visual to the fact that Ellie has now broke free from the relationship and is finally escaping the suffocating relationship as one of the connotations of riding a horse is that it give a sense of freedom.

The On My Mind music video follows the typical stereotypes of pop genre by telling a narrative, which is commonly seen in pop music videos. Also pop music videos are known to have some whacky elements in them and the fact that Ellie rides a horse through a casino in the video is a perfect example of this. However the video does go against one major stereotype of a pop music video, which is that there is generally a dance routine performed but there is none featured in this music video. In the video Ellie is seen wearing some very provocative outfits and is even naked for parts of it. This a perfect example of Voyeurism as even though I don’t think the shots are intended in an sexualized way, the fact that she is a naked woman will appeal to the male gaze as in todays society a women seen wearing anything remotely revealing is immediately linked with being sexual and erotic.

Rapid editing and smooth transitions are used in the video in order to match the beat of the song with the visual of the video. The lyrics to the music can easily be linked to the visual of the music video as quite literally when we hear ‘now I’m in a hotel with you’ Ellie is seen in a hotel room with the man that plays her boyfriend/lover. The On My Mind music video can be used to prove Carol Vernallis's theory of sound in a music video. At the start of the music video the sound effects are used to match the visual of the video, then the music is introduced quietly and becomes louder over time, this can prove her theory that the sound in a music video can be revealed slowly as we don’t hear the music straight away but quite a while into the video. Ellie is seen moving her body to the music, for example in the video Ellie crosses and uncrosses her legs, this movement matches the beat of the song at that particular moment. This is evidence to prove Carol Vernallis's theory ‘ Characters may move to the music’. Also the video can be used to demonstrate Carol’s theory that there my be gaps in the audiences understanding of the story, for example when this shot in shown in the video we hear the lyrics ‘You don’t mess with love you mess with the truth’ and because the music doesn't’match the visual at this point and it is at the beginning of the video, the audience may be temporarily confused as to what is happening.