Lady Gaga –“Yoü & I”

The video for the Lady Gaga song “You & I” is 6 minutes 22 seconds long. The video commences with an introduction before the song starts, which is very typical of the artist and can be seen in her previous videos (such as Born this Way, Judas and Telephone) – this could be seen as an attempt by her to increase her star persona but more evident would be that she’s suggesting that all of her videos are mini-movies in their own right and suggests to the viewer that she has a high work ethic and pays a lot of attention to detail in the creation of her videos, which should give the viewer more respect to the artist.

This could also be viewed as an attempt by Lady Gaga to record her place in history and as one of the all time greats and therefore originality & a big production helps to improve the quality of her videos, whilst the idea that creating a better video will result in higher sales for the song. The artist herself has stated the meaning behind the ice cream truck at the start of the video and further suggests that narrative is an important part of her videos – it is one of the music videos types suggested by Diane Railton and Paul Watson in their book “Music Video and the Politics of Representation” however the use of abstract and unique imagery means that certain scenes can fall under the title of art video.

Lady Gaga has a huge worldwide fan base to satisfy and this can be seen in the use of a multitude of characters, which could be an attempt to please a wide range of people – there are intertextual references to her previous videos, persona and appearance pre-fame such as the brown hair at 03:28. This could be an attempt by the artist to expand upon her star persona. The cinematic feel of the video, for example with the lighting at 04:54, the scene at 01:25 and the character makeup at 03:11 further imply that there has been a high level of investment and a very high attention to detail.

This is also increased by the high end fashion present in the video and the mixture of soft and hard, for example with the clothing and metal at 00:56. Three points raised by Joe Gow in his book “Music Video as Communication: Popular Formulas and Emerging Genres” are applicable to this video, namely that it can be described as a special-effects extravaganza, that there are strong elements of a song & dance number in the video (such as at 02:43) and that it is an enhanced performance through both narrative and abstract forms of motivation.

Overall the sound of the song is captured well in the video and this is an example of Andrew Goodwin’s analysis from his book “Dancing in the Distraction Factory” being relevant, namely the fact that there will be a link between the music and the visuals; the song could be described as a slightly modern country song and this is shown in the video through the setting (i.e. the mise-en-scene) being in the Nebraskan countryside, as referenced in the song, and the choices of clothing and the props used, for example the machine present at 02:22.

The narrative of the video could be accurately described as a journey to love and the telling of the narrative is seen in several different characters, for example the mermaid at 03:03 and the girl sitting at the piano at 02:03 and this is an example of Andrew Goodwin’s point about there being a link between the visuals and the lyrics being proven correct.

The man sitting on top of the same piano is actually Lady Gaga dressed up as a man and the fact that she effectively kisses herself at 04:48 could be seen as her giving out the message to love yourself like you might love other people – it could also be seen as post-modern and attempting to break down traditional gender boundaries, which is something that this artist is renowned for, and also serves as a clever marketing technique for any further promotion that may be done for this song such as at the 2011 MTV VMA’s.

The fact that there are close-ups on every single character that she shows in the video, excluding the wedding scene which is intercut sporadically within, complies with another statement made by Andrew Goodwin in the same book that the record labels will demand lots of close ups of Lady Gaga because she is the biggest draw for viewers. The use of rapid zoom and sped up footage additionally helps to keep the video going to the beat and tempo of the song.

Nevertheless she does contradict a point made by Andrew Goodwin that particular music genres have their own music style, and whilst this song could be described as being a bit country and a bit rock’n’roll (as stated by the artist themselves) the presence of choreographed dance scenes at 02:27 and 02:40 go against the general theme of those genres, which usually have videos focusing solely on a self-contained linear narrative or are pseudo-documentary, which are points suggested in the book “Music Video and the Politics of Representation”.

This video could also be described as an analog narrative where there is a non-concert performance of the song intercut with other material; this point is raised in Steve Jones’ book “Cohesive but not Coherent; Music Videos, Narrative and Culture”.