Ellie Goulding - The Writer

Ellie Goulding is a relatively new artist on the pop and country scene, coming from a normal background and using her songs to get her emotions out like many artists too. She became successful in the UK in 2010 and many more fans discovered her when she performed at V Festival. She also has fairly simple video's although her first single was very pop culture (Stary Eyed).


This video starts blurred and stays blurry until we get to 10 seconds when only her eye is revealed. This is because she is a young artist and she believes it should be about the music not the image as much, so we are left with a hardly there image to listen to the beautiful introduction of chimes to the song. It isn't until 30seconds into the song we get to see the whole of her face as the camera zooms out, with the effect of her hair subtly blowing away from her, this very gentle image goes with the gentle sound of her voice at this point.


As she is a girl from the country she wants people to know her roots as she herself is passionate about them; we see her walking through fields to show her country lifestyle, despite this simple idea it isn't boring as we get close ups of her as well as long shots pans and tracking shots. The location and idea is simple but the way the shots are put together is what makes the video interesting and not repetitive. 


There is a typical pop culture scene which she uses just so her pop fans don't get bored or think she is no longer popular culture, this is around 1.59 into the video and is when we have a birds eye view of her laying on a quilted bed posing and singing, this is usually used to show people who the artist is and give off their image. Although she has used this shot, her costume isn't very extravagant and is what a normal girl of her age would wear on a summers day so still gives you the feel she is a real person and not just a celebrity. She wears this same outfit for the video which moves her away from the typical pop video which normally has multiple costume changes and very elaborate clothing, but her simple denim high waisted shorts and white tank shirt make her seem innocent and young which is why many young girls can relate to her. The fact she has her legs out and fashionable shorts on also draws in the male of her fan base.


Towards the end of the music video when the music is quietened down and it is more focused on her vocals the video slows down and we are shown various shots of her singing, mainly close ups which makes us focus on the music and not the performance based video. It ends with her facing away from the camera but with her head looking back showing her care free nature and happiness to be in the country. We can also see the lighthouse which much of the video was featured in which fits nicely. This is a very gentle video to fit a gentle song.

Rihanna - Russian Roulette

This video was directed by Anthony Mandler and was released on October 20th 2009. It has sold over 3 million copies and made it to number 2 in the UK charts. It is a pop video, however does not neccessarily follow the conventions of a pop video. It has a very serious storyline involving gun crime and most pop songs take these kind of subjects quite lightly. Russian roulette is a very powerful video, and as the name states it is about guns and would therefore is quite a difficult and controverial topic to portray. It shows her in two locations, one in a prison being interviews and one with her love interest at a table with a gun.
There are a few examples of the lyrics matching the visuals. Whilst we see Rihanna in prison singing the song, we also see her at the table with the man and the gun, which is a usual setting for the game 'russian roulette'. At the start of the song it begins with "take a breath, take it deep." We see her taking deep breaths and trying to calm herself down whilst at the table. Another example is where it says "Just take the gun and count to three". At this point the gun slides across the table into her hand and she is trying to get herself to pick it up but we can see that she is nervous. When the song reaches the chorus, the lyrics say "You can see my heart beating, you can see it through my chest, and i'm terrified". At these points we can see flashbacks of the accident, a shot of Rihanna crouched in the corner looking really scared, and we also see her at the table again but this time letting the emotions get to her. There is also another line that says "So just pull the trigger". On the word trigger we see her jump as she thinks that the man has shot himself, but he hasn't. We also see another flashback. Another good example is at the bridge of the song it says "As my life flashes before my eyes", we see a mixture of different things faded into one another. We see her in different locations, and we also see the accident again and some other random things.
There is a main beat in the background of the song, and at the start of the video the cuts tend to be in sync with this, however when the song reaches the chorus the speed of the cuts slows down. At the end of the chorus, however we see parts of the flashback and then her and that all happens very quickly. There is also a fade at the end of the first verse which changes the pace slightly and shows that the action is not neccessarily happening very fast. At the end of the second verse there is a series of fast drum beats, and the video does very fast cuts in time with that of Rihanna in all of the different locations. There is a lot of use of the colour red in this fast cutting sequence, to emphasise the danger in the storyline. Near the end of the video the cuts get faster but the shots get longer as we see more of her in pain and figuring out what she should do.
There are a lot of close up's of Rihanna, showing her singing in the prison and also at the table. These shots are not to show her performing as when she is singing she is still part of the narrative as she is in prison. The record company is looking to sell the track by presenting Rihanna in her unusual clothes and style but by also giving her a different style of song to work with. She is a famous pop artist and therefore normally performs upbeat and sometimes even dance tracks, and yet this is a very serious song and video also.
She is not used for sexual display within the video, however some of her costumes are a bit risky. At one point she is just wearing a corset suit and other times she is wearing nice dresses. This isnt to put her on sexual display, I believe that it is to show her figure off in some scenes, and in others it goes with the scene as we feel that her character may be being used by the male at the table. The video could easily relate to Rihanna's relationship with Chris Brown, and the fact that we know he abused her, as the video contains a lot of violence and shows Rihanna being pressurised by the man. This could show a glimps of the pain that she was feeling whilst going through the ordeal. The video is narrative based with a glimpse of performance in character.

Lilly Allen - F**k You

This video is of a song called ‘Fuck You’ by Lily Allen. This song originally appeared on her myspace page in 2008 alongside a few of her other songs, such as ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I could say’ making them easily accessible to her fan base. The song is an anti George Bush protest, however Lily herself said that this song ‘is relevant everywhere now so has removed a particular target’ from its origin. This song made its chart debut in the Canadian Top 100 entering at number 37. The video has had a lot of airplay on music channels and online even though it was debuted on the UK Charts before it was even released here.

The video itself is of Lily’s point of view. It shows her in a relationship and not to be to happy with it, just getting by. This song I'm sure is easy for many people to relate to young and older which is why Lily's fan base is so wide. In the song she is seen to have realised she can do better than the dead end relationship she is in and she starts to turn bitter, for example not turning the heating on so her boyfriend is cold when he wakes up, this is shown clearly by her looking disgracefully at him. At the beginning of the song, she says 'look inside your tiny mind' this isn't just an insult to her boyfriends intelligence it is meant to appeal to the audience too, to make them see they can do better than this and that they need to stop being narrow minded and stand up for themselves. At this point of the video we are looking through Lily's eye's and we are seeing a set for a video to take place, it is in black and white to signify to inability humans have to see anything and is slightly distorted giving the idea we see what we want to more than what is there.


The deep meanings to Lily Allen's songs come across in all of her music even though it is very light hearted and upbeat, this is to attract the young audience as well so she can create a better generation; she has often been found to be saying she just wants fairness for all ages and the only way to do this is by making me understand and see what is really happening. 


There is one point in the song where she is slouching on her bed eating a bar of chocolate which stereotypically is teenage behaviour all over, this is what she is trying to show. She also uses the term 'crew' to explain people making her hip. during this zoom into her eating the chocolate she looks very bored and fed up with the situation she is in and this is the same time she is swearing in the song, showing teenagers relaxed attitude to bad language and that it is a normal thing.


Towards the end Lily seems to be getting together with a man showing her fans it can work out but you have to stand your ground and be heard. This video is all in black and white making it look reflective which works well for the lyrics. I like this video a lot as this is her perspective on the world and it is shown very clearly indeed.