Who Am I Living For

We've decided that we are definately going to be doing the song Who Am I Living For, by Katy Perry :)

Here are the lyrics:

Yeah eh yeah yeah

I can feel a phoenix inside of me
As I march alone to a different beat
Slowly swallowing down my fear, yeah yeah

I am ready for the road less travelled
Suiting up for my crowning battle
This test is my own cross too bare
But I will get there

It’s never easy to be chosen, never easy to be called
Standing on the frontline when the bomb starts to fall
I can see the heavens but I still hear the flames
Calling out my name

I can see the writing on the wall
I can’t ignore this war
At the eh-end of it all
Who am I living for?

I can feel this lightness inside of me
Growing fast into a bolt of lightning
I know one spark will shock the world, yeah yeah

So I pray for a favour like Esther
I need your strength to handle the pressure
I know there will be sacrifice
But that’s the price

It’s never easy to be chosen, never easy to be called
Standing on the frontline when the bomb starts to fall
I can see the heavens but I still hear the flames
Calling out my name
I can see the writing on the wall
I can’t ignore this war
At the eh-end of it all
Who am I living for?

I can see the writing on the wall
I can’t ignore this war
At the eh-end of it all
Who am I living for?

At the end, at the end
Who am I living for?
At the end, at the end
Who am I living for?

Heavy is the head that wears the crown
Don’t let the greatness get you down
Heavy is the head that wears the crown
Don’t let the greatness get you down, oh, oh yeah

I can see the writing on the wall
I can’t ignore this war
At the eh-end of it all
Who am I living for?

I can see the writing on the wall
I can’t ignore this war
At the eh-end of it all
Who am I living for?

At the end, at the end
Who am I living for?
At the end, at the end
Who am I living for?

There are quite a few references to war in the song, which links in perfectly with our narrative of Andy going away to war. Also the 'who am I living for' lyric can easily be linked to Meredith's feelings of loss after she finds out Andy has been killed. 'As I march alone' can be linked to her being alone after Andy went to war, and now that he has died, and 'swallowing down my fear' can refer to her being nervous about him leaving, about him fighting and whether he'll be coming back.

Jeni

I have also done an analysis of another Katy Perry video; ‘Waking Up In Vegas’:

Textual Analysis – Waking Up In Vegas - Katy Perry

Directed by Joseph Kahn

            The Katy Perry song; Waking Up In Vegas is from her debut album; One Of The Boys. The song is of the pop genre, and the video that accompanies it conveys many pop video conventions. The video uses brightly coloured mise en scene throughout and high key lighting to accentuate it. Although the brightly coloured mise en scene is visible throughout the video, it is at it’s most in the middle of the narrative, where Katy and the boyfriend/husband have the most money. This could be to help emphasise the facts that they’re now rich and having fun, and also to glamorise Perry. Despite the opening and ending of the video being Perry and the boyfriend by a slot machine with no money, Perry is still glamorised; she is wearing a long red dress, gloves and has extravagant make up on.

            There are times where the visuals shown are literal interpretations of the lyrics, for example; ‘did we get hitched last night? Dressed up like Elvis.’ During these lyrics, the narrative shows Perry getting married to her boyfriend in a Vegas style chapel, with the official dressed as Elvis.

The title of the song is also shown at various points throughout the video. The slot machine at the beginning and at the end is called ‘Waking Up In Vegas’, and the money-blowing machine also has ‘Waking Up In Vegas’ written on the top of it.

            The cinematography fits with the music well, as the video changes pace, getting faster and slower, as the music does. Cuts are reasonably quick and on the beat. There are a variety of shots used, for example; long shots, mid shots and close-ups, and zooms, handheld movement, pans and whip-pans were used often.

            The video is a mix of being performance and narrative based. There is the clear storyline of Perry and her boyfriend being out in Vegas, gambling their money and winning, then as they start to argue, their luck fails and they lose everything, but unlike in some other music videos, Perry doesn’t have a separate performance space to where the narrative takes place. Instead, she sings whilst in the narrative.

            Perry is represented as being a young, glamorous, fun and care free woman. She is on sexual display through the video, as well as some other women in the narrative. She is shown as being rich, glamorous and popular for the most part of the video. This could be the record company trying to convey that she is popular both in and out of the narrative, or that if you’re with Perry, and like her, then you’ll have fun.

Jeni

I have also done an analysis of Katy Perry's Hot 'N' Cold

Katy Perry ‘Hot N Cold’

The video belongs to the electro-pop genre. The video does have some broad characteristics that you would expect for that genre. Some of these are the use of bright colours throughout the entire video making the video look fun and exciting. Also the use of dance routines and high production are broad characteristics of the genre making the video very eye catching.

    The video is both narrative-based and performance based. The narrative behind the video is Katy’s wedding. She is about to exchange her vows with her diffident fiancee Alexander. But he flees the altar before taking his vow. Katy then pursues him, and they proceed to play a cat-and-mouse game. Katy corners him several times; each time, she appears with 3 different sets of clothes with a group of backup dancers. As she sings the song's verses to him, she appears alternately anguished, angry, and seductive. At the end of the video, it is revealed that the whole pursuit was Alexander's fantasy, and he is still standing at the altar while Katy waits for him to say "I do". He does, and Katy runs victoriously down the aisle with him. There is also a performance where she is singing to a crowd in a small club with flickering lights at the back of her.

    The mise-en-scene is fitting to the genre making her look fun and exciting. She has several costume changes throughout the video but is mainly in a wedding dress. Her wedding dress has been made to her style and is not like an ordinary one making her stand out. The locations used in the music video such as the church show it is a fun light-hearted song. Also the use of pink push bikes and the zebra fit well with the video and song as it is not meant to be taken seriously. The lighting is also very bright flashing in different scenes of the video making it more eye catching.

    There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals as the visuals are used throughout the video to amplify the lyrics.  For example ‘you change your mind like a girl changes clothes’ is amplified by several changes in outfits suggesting that she is mirroring his moods. Also the chorus features a series of binary opposites to emphasize the unstable nature of the characters relationships which you see through the visuals. At the end of the song Katy Perry appears with a zebra which seems very random but it is actually referring to a previous line ‘its black and its white’ suggesting Alexander is dreaming.

   There is a relationship between the music and visuals. The editing matches the tempo of the music and maintains a quite a fast speed throughout the song as the locations and scenes change throughout the video.  Also the dance routine of the brides fits with the pace of the music and emphasises the beat of the song. The visuals also change pace throughout the video keeping in sync with the music.

  Within the video a variety of shots are used. Close up’s are used mainly on her and Alexander making sure the attention stays on them showing there emotions and reactions throughout helping the narrative. The long shot are used in the club scene and the dance routines which is fitting to the genre. Also low-angle shots are used in the club scene looking up towards Katy Perry emphasising her star image where as high angle shots are used on the crowd showing Katy Perry is the main attraction.

    There are several inter-textual references in the music video for Hot ‘N’ Cold. For example the man dressed in a hot dog suit outside the diner relates to several T.V programmes and films. Also the old fashioned pink push bike which relates to her star image.

    Within the music video Katy Perry is represented as fun, outgoing person who doesn’t take herself to seriously. Also she is not put on sexual display in the video which makes her look like more of a role model towards the younger generation. The man who plays the husband to be is actually her friend in real life called Alexander Rodriguez. He is represented as a young man getting the jitters before getting married.

    The record company is trying to sell the track by showing that its a light hearted catchy song through a eye catching video. Also Katy Perry is being shown as someone different and not just the average female pop singer through her style of singing and clothing.

Kenny

 

I've been looking through some other Katy Perry videos, 'Thinking Of You' is quite similar to what we're planning to do! Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxfxDycUVnE

It's set in the 1940's, and involves the boyfriend character going away to war. Girlfriend then recieves a telegram notifying her that boyfriend has been killed...all things that we want to do. However we have got a lot of other ideas to use along with these, and our finished video will be quite different to the Katy Perry one :)
This video will probably be useful for inspiration on mise en scene though!

Jeni