2. The use of slow motion
3. The on and off use of cutting to the beat
4. The deconstructionist element (e.g. in costume)
Act: Tove Lo
Track: Disco Tits
Year: 2017
Director: Tim Erem
Genre: electropop
Main Audience: Females (16-24)
There are 11 shots in the first 30 seconds. This estimates that each shot lasts 2.7 seconds.
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There is frequent use of low key lighting in this music video. At some points, colour correction/colour gels are used. This is a stereotypical convention of the electropop genre.
Dennis McQuail's 'Uses and Gratifications' can be applied within this music video. Three of the gratifications are present: personal identity, personal relationship and diversion/escapism. Females aged 16-24 can identify with the female singer, Tove Lo since she is the main protagonist in her video. This overlaps with John Berger's 'ways of seeing', which suggests that men act and women appear within the media - this implies that men have an active role in the media while women only have a passive role. This music video counteracts/goes against this theory by having a female as the main protagonist. Tove Lo has an active role in the music video by being the main female protagonist who leads the narrative.
Andrew Goodwin argued that there are 6 key features/conventions of music videos, this theory does apply to this music video. These 6 conventions are: genre characteristics, frequent close ups of the artist, the notion of looking, intertextual references, relationship between lyrics and visuals and finally the relationship between the music and the visuals. There are frequent close ups of the artist lip syncing in this music video. Also, there are many electropop genre characteristics shown throughout such as colour correction, striking costumes. There is also a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals for example when Tove Lo sings "Nipples are hard, ready to go" you see shots of Tove Lo dancing caressing her chest.
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| Close Up of artist, Tove Lo lip syncing in the video |
I have also seen other videos which have frequent use of colour correction such as Halsey's 'Ghost', Astrid S's 'Such A Boy', VENIOR's 'Sugar Rush' and Hayley Kiyoko's 'Cliff's Edge'. All these videos are in the electropop genre.
There is a lot of crude language and sexual imagery in this video; quite cleverly, a muppet character was used as the male partner to be able to get away with the sexual imagery and language. If a male human was used instead, there would have been obvious censorship issues. It has been signified through costume and body language, that Tove Lo is quite brallous.
Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' is exploited in this music video, through the costume that Tove Lo is wearing (a white short ribbed crop top), she isn't wearing a bra so you can see her nipples through the top. Also, you can denote that Tove Lo and the male character in the music video are performing sexual activities such as foreplay. There is one scene within the music video where Tove Lo is wearing just underwear - a pink bra with a red heart on each nipple. This piece of costume is deconstructionist and polysemic because the red colour of the hearts has sexual connotations and the heart shapes have playful innocent romantic connotations. You can also denote Tove Lo making a 'moaning face' several times throughout which further exploits this 'male gaze'. At the same time the 'male gaze' theory can be undermined in this video by the use of low-key lighting, the tattoos on her arms, punches the muppet in the video, has minimal make-up (for example, she is not wearing bright glossy lipstick), is wearing a nose hoop and her hair is messy - these things all de-glamourise, de-sexualise and masculinise her, providing a counter-normative feminine representation. Tove Lo is refusing to 'perform' gender (Judith Butler). Low key lighting is quite a countertypical thing to see in an electropop music video. Usually in electropop, the singer is made to look heavily glamourised (the skin is especially glamorised). The nose hoop she is wearing connotes rebellion and refusal to conform.
There is only one take (at the end) which lingers on the male character for longer than a second, it lingers on him for 5 seconds. It is a shot of Tove Lo driving with him into the distance. Also, the fact that she is the one driving the roofless car throughout the music video also signifies how she is pushing against the normative representation of females in relationships or even of females in a car with a man (that females don't do the driving if a man is there).
I also think the Bechdel test can be reflected on in this video. The Bechdel Test is a test to see whether a film has at least 2 female characters who have a name and talk about something other than a man. I think this music video passes the Bechdel test because Tove Lo leads the narrative on, she is actively deciding what is happening in the video, controlling what is going on (e.g. makes the muppet go down on her, makes the muppet dance with her). She also punches the muppet in the video and uses foul language which connotes that she is in control and that she is an assertive strong female who has taken on masculine attributes, which again pushes against the normative representation of females being weak, emotional and submissive. Although, there are some shots which specifically objectify Tove Lo which you could say goes against the idea that she is in control deciding things because the director probably would have decided on there to be objectifying shots within the video.
colour correction connoting states of drug use
making colouring explicitly related to drugs
club listening - colour correction - drug taking
illustrating, amplifying the lyrics - cuts show her chest at that point
classic example - is she a feminist or a post feminist - classic objectifying material
quite direct
the human in early 20's - ragged stubble - long hair
male character is wearing similar clothes to her - dancing is similar - hair similar - gender fluidity - refusal to perform gender
the equivalence in clothing mise-en-scene - reflecting
no lingering on the guy - short takes
she is looking in the mirror - body movement - framing - perfect for a GIF
framing - she is on right one time then she is on the left he is on the left then he is on the right - playing around with gender fluidity - elements of discontinuity - not really in face - because of the visual similarity
180 degree rule spitting in it's face
ghosting effect - 2 layers stacked up - opacity change - one is infront of the other
cuts to beat - don't cut to the beat continuously
ghosting - repetitive but useful effect - repeat effects
vernallis - flashing effect with cut jump cut - super zoom in - uh uh uh uh - very long take - good little section
bridging shot of the interior of the bar and the interior of the room - they don't show the interior of the room straight away they show a CU of her
(teen tween notion)
at the end only take which lingers on him - 5 seconds
There is a lot of crude language and sexual imagery in this video; quite cleverly, a muppet character was used as the male partner to be able to get away with the sexual imagery and language. If a male human was used instead, there would have been obvious censorship issues. It has been signified through costume and body language, that Tove Lo is quite brallous.
Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' is exploited in this music video, through the costume that Tove Lo is wearing (a white short ribbed crop top), she isn't wearing a bra so you can see her nipples through the top. Also, you can denote that Tove Lo and the male character in the music video are performing sexual activities such as foreplay. There is one scene within the music video where Tove Lo is wearing just underwear - a pink bra with a red heart on each nipple. This piece of costume is deconstructionist and polysemic because the red colour of the hearts has sexual connotations and the heart shapes have playful innocent romantic connotations. You can also denote Tove Lo making a 'moaning face' several times throughout which further exploits this 'male gaze'. At the same time the 'male gaze' theory can be undermined in this video by the use of low-key lighting, the tattoos on her arms, punches the muppet in the video, has minimal make-up (for example, she is not wearing bright glossy lipstick), is wearing a nose hoop and her hair is messy - these things all de-glamourise, de-sexualise and masculinise her, providing a counter-normative feminine representation. Tove Lo is refusing to 'perform' gender (Judith Butler). Low key lighting is quite a countertypical thing to see in an electropop music video. Usually in electropop, the singer is made to look heavily glamourised (the skin is especially glamorised). The nose hoop she is wearing connotes rebellion and refusal to conform.
There is only one take (at the end) which lingers on the male character for longer than a second, it lingers on him for 5 seconds. It is a shot of Tove Lo driving with him into the distance. Also, the fact that she is the one driving the roofless car throughout the music video also signifies how she is pushing against the normative representation of females in relationships or even of females in a car with a man (that females don't do the driving if a man is there).
I also think the Bechdel test can be reflected on in this video. The Bechdel Test is a test to see whether a film has at least 2 female characters who have a name and talk about something other than a man. I think this music video passes the Bechdel test because Tove Lo leads the narrative on, she is actively deciding what is happening in the video, controlling what is going on (e.g. makes the muppet go down on her, makes the muppet dance with her). She also punches the muppet in the video and uses foul language which connotes that she is in control and that she is an assertive strong female who has taken on masculine attributes, which again pushes against the normative representation of females being weak, emotional and submissive. Although, there are some shots which specifically objectify Tove Lo which you could say goes against the idea that she is in control deciding things because the director probably would have decided on there to be objectifying shots within the video.
colour correction connoting states of drug use
making colouring explicitly related to drugs
club listening - colour correction - drug taking
illustrating, amplifying the lyrics - cuts show her chest at that point
classic example - is she a feminist or a post feminist - classic objectifying material
quite direct
the human in early 20's - ragged stubble - long hair
male character is wearing similar clothes to her - dancing is similar - hair similar - gender fluidity - refusal to perform gender
the equivalence in clothing mise-en-scene - reflecting
no lingering on the guy - short takes
she is looking in the mirror - body movement - framing - perfect for a GIF
framing - she is on right one time then she is on the left he is on the left then he is on the right - playing around with gender fluidity - elements of discontinuity - not really in face - because of the visual similarity
180 degree rule spitting in it's face
ghosting effect - 2 layers stacked up - opacity change - one is infront of the other
cuts to beat - don't cut to the beat continuously
ghosting - repetitive but useful effect - repeat effects
vernallis - flashing effect with cut jump cut - super zoom in - uh uh uh uh - very long take - good little section
bridging shot of the interior of the bar and the interior of the room - they don't show the interior of the room straight away they show a CU of her
(teen tween notion)
at the end only take which lingers on him - 5 seconds
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