Frame analysis and conventions

FRAME ANALYSIS

ConventionsBryony Johnson

GraffitiThe iconography of graffiti is often used in R&B music videos, especially from the 90s, which is an era that inspired this song and some of Grande’s other songs. The audience can see in this screenshot that the title of the song “Baby I” has been spray painted onto the walls. Bright colours are conventionally used in pop music videos; the colour yellow connotes happiness, which is promoted through the upbeat tempo of the song.

The graffiti convention can be seen in the 90s R&B song ‘Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg’ by TLC. Furthermore in LL Cool J’s video for ‘Hush’, we can see the title of the song spray painted on the wall he is standing against, just like in Grande’s video. This is also seen in Victoria Justice’s pop video for ‘Gold’. Miley Cyrus’ ‘Party in the USA’ is another example of a pop song with the graffiti convention.

TLC – Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg

LL Cool J - Hush

Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA

Victoria Justice - Gold

Close up + Talking on the phone

Pussycat Dolls - Stickwitu

Black Eyed Peas – Shut Up

Little Mix – How Ya Doin

Moreover Grande is denoted mouthing the lyrics to her song whilst on the telephone as if she is singing to her “baby”.The convention of being on the phone is shown in many other Pop and R&B music videos. These songs are usually about love and relationships, which suggests that phones are an important part of communicating with a loved one.

Bow Wow & Ciara – Like You

Christina Aguilera – Come On Over

Close up shots are used to draw

emphasis to the artist. In this case

we can see she that Grande is

very happy. This is quite a

conventional emotion to be

depicted through pop music as the

songs are usually very upbeat,

which also leads the audience to

feel the same way

Male GazeLaura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ theory can be applied to a lot of music videos. Even though it may be seen as degrading to women, it is quite conventional in Pop and R&B videos.

Conventionally, there will be a group of males all surrounding and staring at one female. This leads the audience to believe that the female is desirable. It is typical for female pop artists to be depicted in this way. This can be seen in the music videos shown on the left.

Cheryl Cole – Call My Name

Destiny’s Child – Lose My Breath

Long shots are sometimes used in

collaboration with this convention, as can

be seen in both Grande’s video and Cheryl

Cole’s. This shows the audience more of the

background which emphasises the

importance of the artist because even

though we see the background the males

are still drawn to the female. The shot is

also used to show the whole of the female’s

body, especially the use of a canted or

titled angle draws attention the female’s curves.

Party

Party scenes are conventionally used in music videos, especially within the Pop genre. The party scene is shown in many videos, even if it doesn’t directly relate to the lyrics of the song, for example Grande’s song ‘Baby I’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘22’ are about love and relationships, yet the videos are still set at a party. This is used to promote the song as fun and it encourages people to have the same fun attitude. Additionally, these artists use the party scene convention to appeal to their teenaged audience.

In these videos, the lighting is quite similar, whereby the background is dark, but the artist appears illuminated. This again draws attention to the artist.

Selena Gomez - Birthday Taylor Swift - 22

Ke$ha – Tik Tok Lady Gaga – Just Dance

DanceIt is very conventional for music videos to include dance in some kind of way. Sometimes it will be a group of people doing a choreographed dance, as seen in the second screenshot from the ‘Baby I’ video, and also in Little Mix’s video. Other times it will appear to be more spontaneous, as shown in the first screenshot from Grande’s video, and also in Miley Cyrus’ video.

Either way dance is used to promote the songs as being fun and encourage the audience to have fun too.

Little Mix - Wings Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA

Star Motifs!Here we can see one of Grande’s star motifs which is her hair being in the half up, half down style. This can also be seen in Grande’s videos for ‘The Way’ and ‘Right There’. This hairstyle makes her look younger than she is which may appeal to her younger audience.

Star Motifs!In this shot we see another star motif, where Grande dances with her hands in the air. This again can be seen in the videos for ‘The Way’ and ‘Right There’. This makes Grande seem like a fun person thus encouraging people to buy her songs.