ANALYSIS - Katy Perry: Thinking Of You

Here's another music video analysis :)

AUDIENCE

The song is primarily targeted at young female teens aged around 12-16, this is due to the romantic narrative that runs throughout the song. The song is about a woman who is dealing with a break-up and does not want to move on whilst reminiscing about her relationship with another man. As a female artist who has been through relationships Katy understands what teenage girls go through and is there for them as some sort of comfort. Katys lyrics are from a woman's point of view about love which seems to appeal to the girls of this generation. Also, this age is vital to understand because this tends to be the age of 'innocence' for girls and because of this an audience can understand what Katy sings about and are therefore able to relate. 

Nevertheless, even though this is predominantly aimed at young females, this video can appeal to males as well, this is due to the application of Laura Mulvey's Male-Gaze which runs throughout the video. Katy Perry is frequently seen in her underwear, and is also sexually intimate with her lover, this attracts the males eye and they see her as a sexual object. She is seen as more sexually-desirable by the male and as a result they are more likely to buy the single.

Dyers theory of Voyeurism is moderately shown in the video, there are close-up shots of the artists eyes which can in a way been seen as sexual however rarely shows the other body parts. I think this is because the focus of this song is supposed to be more emotional than anything else hence why the Director avoided capturing explicit images of the artist. 

NARRATIVE

Andrew Goodwin believes that each genre follows certain conventions and has certain characteristics that define its nature. For a pop-video like this an element of performance is usually required.This video has a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, the storyline is shown through the visuals which amplify the emotions and feelings of the characters and basically shows us what is happening. For example, when Perry says 'And bust in the door', she closes the door waiting for the soldier to come back home. Also, when she says 'I am thinking of you', the footage cuts to a clip of the couple riding a bike, showing the audience that she is thinking of the times she had with him.

There is also a strong relationship between the music and the visuals, due to the editing. The cuts are done in such a way that the video still has its naturalness and as a result we as the audience feel connected to the artist. The artist is shown to be singing the song establishing that Katy Perry is not only the artist but is also performing as the character, it allows to make the important distinction between performance and narrative.
Todorov's narrative theory is applied thoroughly throughout the video whereby there is a clear narrative, a Beginning; the female characters lover leaves for war and is with her new lover, Middle; she reminisces about her times with her love, End; her lover dies in combat and she attends hid funeral.

INSTITUTIONS

Katy Perry is an American singer, songwriter and actress. As a child she used to sing gospel songs in her church and began perusing this as a teenager. She was first signed to Red H Records where she released her debut studio album Katy Hudson (2001), however this was commercially unsuccessful.

She was signed with Def Jam and Columbia Records for a while but was dropped, and later on - 2007 - she signed with Capitol Records. 

Her breakthrough album was the second one she released named 'One of the boys' and she became known through to of her most loved songs 'Hot n Cold' and 'I Kissed A Girl'.

ANALYSIS

The plot is the key inter textual reference as the soldier going off to war and leaving behind his partner is a popular plot in alot of media, for instance 'Dear John' whereby there are a number of similar mise-en-scenes. As Dear John is Romance, this links well with Katy Perrys video and would definitely appeal to the target audience they are aiming at. The scene where she and her lover are riding on the bike is very similar to the scene in 'The Notebook' which also has the same feel and target audience due to the romance, and this increases their popularity.

Overall, the video itself is more narrative-based than it is performance due to the clear storyline that runs throughout matching the lyrics to almost all visuals, but there is also that slight element of performance as the artist is lip-syncing the lyrics to the song. 

The setting of the video enhances the mood of the song due to the location of the house in the summer and setting of the fields just add to the romantic feel. It also proves to the audience that when you are in love it doesn't matter where you are, you can be happy either way, this is because even though she is in the same place she has lot the one she truly loves and as a result her true happiness is gone. 

GENRE

The genre of the song is pop as it has nearly all the key conventions required for a pop song; performance, clear editing. Also, there are bright colours throughout the video, & natural lighting which is usually a key aspect of pop videos, although the funeral scene included dark coloured clothing the surrounding scene was bright and the flashbacks also brightened up the video, this complied to the conventions of bright colours in a pop video.

REPRESENTATION

Dyer theory is applied to this video whereby there are a range of close-ups to the artist, this amplifies the fact that she is the star of the video. and also shows a strong relationship between the artist and the visuals. This establishes Perry as not only the female-lead but also the artist, this works to promote Katy Perry as multi-talented: both a singer and actress, again making her more appealing to only current fans but to new groups of people as well (increase her fan-base), would also apply to film-directors. The close-ups of Perry whilst lip-syncing allow the audience to gain a real connection with her and feel as though they can relate to her and understand what she is going through, in this video she portrays herself to be an emotional person and the close-up shots amplify her sadness and true feelings to the audience, and we in turn empathize with her.