Music Video Textual Analysis

Katy Perry – California Gurls

Forms & Conventions• Genre: Pop• Date of release: 14th June 2010• Type of video: narrative and performance

Adherence to a pop music video- No/barely any clothing – discouraged by

parents of the young audience the video is targeted at which represents Katy as fun and cool

- The back-up dancers/other girls in the video make Katy look friendly and sociable, which makes her look more approachable to a young female audience

- Use of long shots – show her entire body which is typical of female pop artists as they are always sexualized and have ‘perfect’ bodies

Genre Characteristics• Katy wears lots of make up which is

typical of female pop artists as they always look airbrushed and preened to

• The excessive amount of back up dancers is also typical of pop videos – it represents Katy as popular and fun-loving

• The lighting is very bright to connote to show how fun and uplifting Katy is

• Snoop Dogg featuring in the video is typical of the genre as most female pop artists collaborate with male rappers

Institutions• Katy Perry is signed to Capitol Records • She has been with the record label since

2007

• As Capitol is a well known record label, they have access to hundreds of thousands of people via the label’s main twitter account (@CapitolRecords) where they can tweet information about their artists and links to new music videos

Relationships between lyrics and visuals

• The relationship between lyrics and visuals is illustrative when Katy sings ‘sun-kissed skin so hot we’ll melt your popsicle’ - there is a mid-shot of her showing her tanned unclothed body which matches the ‘sun-kissed skin’ she sings about, and emphasizes the idea of her being perfect and flawless which is typical of female pop artists

• When Snoop raps ‘Katy my lady’, there is a long shot of him with Katy surrounded by other girls which gives the impression that they are both popular and the target audience (young girls) should aspire to be like them

• Katy sings ‘Daisy Dukes, bikini’s on top’, a shot of her and the dancers in bikinis shows how female pop artists are often sexualized and appear to have perfect bodies

Relationship between music and visuals

• Both the music and the lighting are bright which gives a sense of Katy as an upbeat, uplifting artist

• The colours in the video are all very bright pinks and blues which also matches the upbeat, fun sound and shows Katy’s femininity

• The higher pitch matches the candy on screen to connote a sense of sweetness