MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS Artist: Miley Cyrus Track Name: Wrecking Ball Genre of song: Pop (Ballad/Soft Rock) Director: Terry Richardson Format: 3:42 - Studio Based Performance Intentions Changing

Mileyʼs “Star Persona”. Before: Hannah Montana, Innocent, Clean cut, Child friendly, Funny, Witty, Design to appeal to young teenagers. 12-14. Now: Miley Cyrus new “Star Persona”, Risqué, promiscuous, raunchy, objectified, explicit, confident, older, edgier. Designed to appeal to grow

with her fans. To promote the new single, to promote Miley Cyrus as an artist. To act as a revenue stream. (Most watched youtube video in a day).

Representation of the artist

Emotional, Sad and Hurt, Anger. She is seen crying, violent imagery, Literal destruction, and facial expressions. Stops lip-syncing to cry. Personal and honest, song refers to real life relationship break

up. Confident, assured, she is naked and riding a wrecking ball. Promiscuous, highly sexualized, licking a sledgehammer. Attempting to create image of a strong woman using her sexuality.

Relationship between music and visuals

Slow soft opening – close up on face, slow motion, stillness, simple, builds up to a crescendo, ballad, Chorus – music swells, verse is softer, instrumentation – guitar, studio produced,

and digital quality. Drums – wrecking ball hits wall in time with drop.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

Wrecking ball in song, we see wrecking ball. Broken heart and broken relationship – shown by destruction of wall. She is stripped of her emotions – she is naked. Licks hammer to symbolize her embracing the pain.

Voyeurism (Notion of looking)

Licking the hammer – sexual reference, explicit intimate moment, and high angle

close up of her. Explicit nature of the video - makes it obvious that the viewer is being played with. We are watching raw emotion and crying.

Intertextuality

Obvious reference to Sinead OʼConnerʼs “Nothing Compared To You” video in terms of framing, address and tears of emotion.

Typical of genre

Typical – song about love, imagery relates directly to lyrics, performers address is direct to audience, abstract imagery & drama similar to

Lady GaGa Different – show of emotion is so raw, overly explicit, a pop video but with many extreme elements.

Who is the target audience

Miley Cyrus fans who have grown up. Now older teenagers/early twenties. A new audience: Lady GaGa fans because of explicit imagery and drama. Potentially new male audience due to explicit nature.

Why would this appeal to target audience

Different from how she used to be she is a “new”

person and “mature/older”. Emotion and love – experiences similar to demographic will enjoy the confident, strong female image. Edgier GaGa influences, shedding of “Disney” Persona. It is risky, weird and gets people talking. Heavily promoted.