Textual Analysis Of A Music Video 2

I looked at Single Ladies by Beyoncé. The video was released on October 12^th 2008. It was directed by Jake Nava. The genre of the music video would be classed as R&B or dance-pop which would be the sub-genre. This video only contains a performance type mode, the whole video shows Beyoncé and her back up dancers dancing for the whole video.

The setting is clearly based in a studio with white drapes. However the studio is spacious for them to be able to have a lot of space to dance in. High key and Low key lighting was used in this music video. Depending on what part of the song was on the key of lighting would change. This is to add emphasis to the change of verse or chorus. Sticking to the theme of black and white, she may relate this to the audience that she’s targeted.

In this video, the camera techniques are very effective. It looks like they had one camera with more than one take and the camera was on a crane. It looks very effective when it looks like the camera does a 360 turn round the girls dancing but actually the studio is only a 180 degrees rule. But this worked because of the way the dance was choreographed to make it look like she is actually turning.. The camera had a lot of movement and the movements were very smooth because it had the advantage of it being on a crane. The camera shots had the choice to have a huge variety of shots but stuck to just being a long shot for the majority of the video but this was very effective and gave the impression to the audience of her having control.

The costume was very flaunting and figure hugging as she is an inspiration to all the curvy women and for this reason is a celebrity that many audiences look up to. She has stuck to the black and white theme by wearing a black leotard. She wore a slightly different type to her backing dancers to make her stand out a little more as she is the artist. Her hair and makeup is very big to emphasise her character, personality and dance steps. This follows her star image as she known for being curvy but at the same time she is known for being glamorous. Even though she is in a leotard she still looks glamorous. Her videos are known for her performance based dances as well. The main relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is the roboglove she wear on her hand. Whenever she sings about ‘Put a ring on it’, she points to her ring finger. The roboglove is also worn to complement Beyoncé’s alto ego, Sasha Fierce. The visuals have been kept very simple to emphasize solely on the performance.

 I think that there is a slight sense that the artist is on sexual display because the is simply a high cut leotard and high heels with her hair and makeup done influenced by a vogue shoot alongside two look-alike dancers. In terms of the dancing, the artist can be seen to be on sexual display as it includes a lot of leg and hip shaking while wearing high heels. However, the main intention is to attract the viewers' attention towards their hands and ring fingers.