Analysing music videos - Beauty and a Beat

Justin Bieber - Beauty and a Beat

Camera: The camera angles used are mostly close ups, pov and wide shots to capture all the dancing around Justin and the lively atmosphere. We mostly look through Justins eyes as he sings and dances in different places of the park, giving you the feeling you're right there with him and it makes it more personal. Also, a few low angles and bird eyes views are used to capture scenes like when the swimmers dance around Justin and when Justin films himself and Nicki.

Editing: it seems simple but is actually quite clever in some shots such as when the dancer of the red silk swishes the material over the camera, it quickly cuts to another scene by a pool. Another example is after the first chorus with the backup dancers and Justin kicks the water at the camera it suddenly disappears under the water into a different pool. The effective use of cutting makes this video unique and fun. 

Mise en Scene: The location is at a water park in LA and is set around the many pools and slides that the dancers are in. There is no special lighting, costume or makeup required as it's all the peoples own clothing. Except for Nicki who is known for her wild choices in outfits as we see her wearing a bright pink dress with fluffy pom poms and a tutu, with a blonde and pink wig. The only props really used are the cameras Justin uses to film the entire thing.

Sound: There isn't really any cutting to the beat, but every time the song changes rhythm from verse, to bridge, to chorus etc it cuts to a different setting within the park. The song is about having fun, partying, being carefree and showing off his girl. There aren't any deep, meaningful lyrics with hidden messages as it's just a fun, dance pop song for the radio, except Nicki's rap does imply a few things. "buns out, weiner" could be a sexual innuendo, and she talks about herself and her tour rather then partying - "world tour it's mine, ten little letters on a big sign".

 Representations: no representations are really challenged in this video as it's stereotypical of a male to be the lead and have female dancers following him around, and then show off the lead woman beside them. Also the age stereotype is met as they're all teenagers/young adults having fun, being care free which 18 year olds should be like. Although the place stereotype is slightly challenged as you wouldn't usually expect a music video to be filmed in a water park.

Andrew  Goodwin Theory: the video does demonstrate certain pop genre characteristics as it's common to see the artist themselves singing along, dance routines, a fun vibe with a rap artist featured. There's only a little connection between the lyrics and visuals, as Justin sings "show you off, tonight i wanna show you off", he doesn't have any girl by his side to actually show off. The only relationship is when he says "we gonna party like it's 3012 tonight" and "we young tonight" as the video shows a lot of people dancing through the park, having fun and acting like kids in the water. There are quite a few close ups as Justin is filming himself walking around the park. Justin's usual visual style is to have a leading lady, which in this case is Nicki Minaj, a great dance routine with lots of backing dancers and a stylish outfit which is all featured in this video. There is a lot of 'notion of looking' as we constantly look through his camera, and other cameras around and some of it is like we're looking from Justins eyes (pov shot). There isn't many intertextual references although there is a lot of product placement such as Just Dance 4 is being played, every camera he uses and the water park itself.

Music video styles: the style of this video is dominantly performance, but also a little concept as it's different. Justin sings along to the song and performs it with dancers everywhere around the water park. The fact that Justin filmed it himself and half of it is in pov shot in a location that has nothing to do with the song make its more idea based then other pop videos. The original idea of the video was to make it seem like it was stolen footage from a anon blogger which is why it shows random clips at the start, and then breaks into the real video. This brought a lot of attention to the video as some people really thought he was hacked and it was private footage. The vibe of this video is very enjoyable, energetic and fun with slightly more care free dancing. It'd be fun for our music video to be located in a random place or park and have dancers involved but it could be very difficult.

Record labels and directors: Justin is signed to Island Def Jam Music Group/Island Records and School Boy Records. Nicki Minaj is signed to Lil Wayne's famous YMCMB records/Cash Money Records, Republic Records and Universal.
The director of this video was mostly Justin himself as we see him walk around with a GoPro and also famous movie director, Jon Chu. Chu also directed Justin's film Never Say Never, Believe Tour, Step Up and GI Joe. So to just work with Justin alone is typical thing of Chu to do in his work.