Paramore - Still into You
The video for this song creates an image of the band as being fun and happy with an overall positive message shown through the song and the music video. There is not a strong social message to the video as the meaning behind both the song and the video is very simple and not unusual to popular music.
Most of the shots focus on the lead singer and the other band members and there are many close ups emphasizing her as the bearer of the message of the song. The cutting rate of the video of fairly fast and in time with the upbeat song keeping with the idea of enjoyment and excitement. The mise-en-scene is very colourful and bright with lots of pastel colours, cakes and candles giving the idea of a 'cuteness' and amplifying the ideologies of love. The settings are also very simplistic so the video is mostly focused on the performance of the artist.
The video is not unusual and does not break any molds and is very typical of a lot of mainstream videos suggesting that it is purely a commercial music video.
The star image constructed of this band is a generally positive and this is emphasised by the colour and action within the video. Not much is added to the meta-narrative of the band through this video.
The representation of social groups in this video does not deviate from the normal representation in most videos and reinforces dominant ideologies. The main representation of youth as rebellious can be seen in actions such as the bmx bikes inside the building but the rebellion is not outrageous so still projects a good ideology that is not shocking or dangerous.
This video differs to the norm in that unlike ideas media theorists such as Laura Mulvey, there does not seem to be any objectification of either gender within the video. The lead singer while being fairly typically good-looking, she does not necessarily have the artificial look that conform to the myth of femininity as can be seen in many other media texts. While her image seems very 'feminine' throughout and the males are represented fairly 'masculine' neither are overtly sexualised and Laura Mulvey's idea of the 'male gaze' is hard to apply here.
It could be argued that some shots were from the 'male gaze' and that some filler shots that were unrelated to the events of the video, use just the appearance of the artist as something beautiful to look at. However it is hard to argue that she has been objectified in this video.
It is unusual for the lead singer of a band of this genre to be female so it is possible that this has had an affect of the image the band want to portray of women within their work.
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