MUSIC VIDEO COMPARISON: Dua lipa & vance joy

Comparing Music Videos

 

Compare and contrast how media language is used in the music videos to 'Break my Heart' by Dua Lipa and 'Riptide' by Vance Joy.

Make reference to Cinematography and editing, music video conventions and how visual elements create meaning for the audience. 

Break my Heart

Codes and Conventions 

• The video is heavily performance based with the different outfits, scene changes and dance that play a major role in this video, there's never a scene with just her doing nothing, there's always some sort of dance, act or expression she's trying to show.

Camera Work

• Dua Lipa is clearly the celebrity of the video as she is always central of the scene and almost always uses direct mode of address to the audience/camera.
• Theres lots of movement in the video and the camera constantly turns to transition to the next scene.
• The angles are mostly all straight on suggesting how she's strong and portrays her songs message which also allows her to make direct eye contact to the people watching.

Editing

• The editing always matches the beat of the song which is very obvious to people listening.
• Each transition is edited very cleverly which links all the very different scenes together and makes the audience feel like they are on some sort of journey.

Elements of continuity/montage

• The music video is very continuous in the way its put together but all the scenes are quite random meaning the audience won't know what to expect next which I think is a good thing as it will excite the people watching and make them engage in the song.
• The fact that it ends the same as it starts suggests ideas of a full circle and ends the 'story', it's a clear code that the song has finished or that despite what she says she'll do the same thing again.

Intertextuality 

• There is reference to 80's music videos especially at the beginning and end of this video, shown by the dark street with lots of cars making it look like New York and the neon lights that pop up in different parts of the music video. The catchy tune as well could reference the classic 80's disco-pop sound in a modern twist.
• The song is a new release and despite the Coronavirus outbreak she's still pursued what she wanted and released this video anyway which would cause talk between people. 
• The hamster wheel is a metaphor that represents something never-ending or something that will not change. The scenes Dua Lipa goes through to see the hamster wheel are similar to that of a hamster going round and round, referencing the cyclical structure of the video and this is why it is at the hamster wheel where the video starts to reverse the narrative.

Structure/Narrative

• At the start, the narrative is set up very clearly in this video as each scene she goes back to at least once and there's something instantly recognisable in each one.
• The narrative continues with the dance routine of all girls that she's taken from dates suggesting a meaning of independence.
• As the video continues we see her becoming more independent shown by her being in scenes featuring less people but the ending shot of her blowing a bubble of gum sums it up as that's the last thing we hear and see with her quite moody but powerful expression.
• All the scenes cleverly link together and revolve around circles, it occurs throughout the whole video which keeps the narrative going.

Sound

• Everything in this video matches up to the song, her lip-syncing, the editing transitions, dance routine and even the lighter and darker scenes being used depending on the pace of the song.
• The lyrics are all about going back to somebody who will break Dua Lipa's heart, the 'going back' theme is shown by the cyclical structure, as the video send how it starts.
• Her lyric choices are very powerful to listen to such as; "I should have stayed at home" telling people to follow by her words not actions. By using lyrics like this in a catchy tune, it means that many people will be singing this, whether they want to or not, engraining the message to stay safe and isolate from others.
• This gives the song a major focus and does exactly what the purpose of a music video is - to advertise it and her new album.

Mise-en-scene

• The video is very bold and colourful, each scene has a new costume or style, however they all link together by her constant hair style and makeup.
• The locations are all quite abstract for example, when she's supposed to be in a boat the window shows a city skyline which is not realistic from sea level. They all show abstract and unrealistic scenes with the use of bright colours to make the video more fun and remind viewers that the video is still for a pop song. 

Comparing to Vance Joy 'Riptide'

What key differences are there in style between the two videos?

As the video progresses Riptide gets darker in colour, style and story however Break My heart stays the same style throughout the video keeping its message. Also, the video is performance focused meaning there are more dance elements which is very different to Riptide as there's never any dance, its focus is on storytelling and creating tension as the video continues.

In what ways do the two videos visually match the lyrics of the song?

Dua Lipa's song is always matched up to the lyrics and she sings every line of the song with direct address to the audience, as well as what's going on in the video which links pretty much to every line she sings. This majorly contrasts to Riptide which starts by loosely linking to the lyrics but gradually stops and becomes more random and mismatched, especially shown by the woman singing into a microphone, her lip-syncing gets worse and the words across the screen are not the proper lyrics creating a confusing visual.

What is the preferred reading of each music video/And who is is the target audience?

I think the preferred reading of Riptide is to confuse the audience that may think they would've known how the video would end, just listening to the song you may think its cheery by the upbeat tune but the video gives it a new spin and links it to themes of horror. The target audience for Dua Lipa would be most people I think as its a pop song that's just been released, but mainly young people that would need to hear her message as the preferred reading would be to listen to her and stay at home.

Both music videos rely heavily on costume and mise-en-scene as symbolic codes. What deeper meanings do these two videos hold?

Riptide relies heavily on costume and colours in each of its different scenes, symbolic codes are shown by colour choices as it uses the metaphor of green to symbolise money and jealousy that is represented through the whole video. Whereas in Break my Heart, the video is very bright and colourful which shows the abstract theme of the video.

How do these music videos use binary oppositions?

Riptide uses a binary opposition in the scene that features an ice cream which is symbolic of a negative breaking of a relationship but its cheery mise-en-scene contradicts this and still presents a creepy and troubling mood. This is similar to Dua Lipa's video as her whole song is around broken relationships and being more independent but her mise-en-scene is bold and bright.

One video is conventional, the other unconventional. 

Music videos are used as promotional pieces for an artists song so the strong creative visual they create gives the artist a competitive advantage over their industry peers. They are used to give listeners an alternative vision of the song which will make more people aware of it and whether they like it or not puts the song in their head.

Why do music videos differ so wildly?What messages do these videos encode about young women?

Dua Lipa's video encoded messages of independence and empowerment for young women by the lyrics in her song as well as the video featuring many different women to men showing the message of her video. Whereas Riptide encodes women very differently as the typical sexual, vulnerable, objectifying and stereotypical hegemonic style for the male gaze.