2. Bruno Mars – Lazy Song
The Lazy Song is a song by the
American singer-songwriter
Bruno Mars from his debut
studio album, Doo-Wops &
Hooligans. It was released as
the third single from the album
on February 15, 2011. The song
was written with K'naan and his
production team The
Smeezingtons, who also
produced the track. "The Lazy
Song" displays influences of
reggae and Hawaiian music.
Furthermore, the song went to
number one in the United
Kingdom, becoming Bruno Mars’
third number one single in under
a year.
3. Narrative&Performance aspects
The Lazy Song includes elements of
narrative and performance however is more
focused on performance throughout the
video. Small narrative scenes include when
Bruno Mars sing ‘Meet a really nice girl and
have some really nice sex, and she’s gonna
scream out ‘this is great’’. This then shows
an actor (acting as the girl) who Bruno has
met and then says ‘Oh my god this is great’
showing mild narrative.
The rest of the music video shows Bruno
Mars singing with actors dressed as
monkeys dancing in the background. Bruno
Mars has used monkey masks as he is
suggesting he looks like a monkey, you can
tell this by them all wearing the same
glasses and similar outfits.
Another distinctive performance scene is
when Bruno Mars plays a guitar along with
the song whilst singing. This shows clear
4. Genre Conventions
The Lazy Song comes under the Pop/R&B
genre. Music videos that belong to the genre of
pop are usually extremely performance based,
with the singer, or band lip syncing throughout
the song, as well as performing via dancing or
in a narrative story that reflects the meaning of
the lyrics. The overall tone and hue of the
video will be very bright, with the artist wearing
bright trendy mainstream clothing. Pop music
videos are usually fun and light hearted to
appeal to a younger audience. Bruno Mars has
closely followed the idea of this genre
convention. His music video is highly focused
on performance with him singing throughout,
whilst performing to display some form of
meaning. The meaning of his song is light
hearted and contains humour, this is
exemplified through the use of monkey’s and
comical dancing. Bruno Mars is also wearing
mainstream, fashionable clothing. (Checked
shirt with all the buttons done up as well as
dark skinny jeans.) This allows the audience to
relate to him through their similar taste.
5. Lyrics and Visuals
The lyrics and visuals are linked closely
throughout the video. The lyrics quote
‘Don’t feel like picking up my phone’ and
Bruno Mars a long with the other members
in the scene use a hand gesture to
represent a phone in time with the song.
Lyrics also quote ‘Throw my hand in my
pants’. When these lyrics are sung, the
other members of the video place their
hands down their trousers whilst dancing at
this point of the song, continuing to show a
clear link between the lyrics and the
visuals. The song also says ‘Meet a really
nice girl’ this is when the character in the
background walks in acting as the
girl, whilst the lyrics continue to ‘Have
some really nice sex’ in which this is when
Bruno uses his arms to act out sexual
movements. The final clear piece of lyrics
linking to visuals is when Bruno says ‘let it
all hang loose’. This is when Bruno along
with the other members pull down their
trousers to represent they are letting
themselves ‘hang loose’. Whilst these are
the key links between the lyrics and visuals
there are also subtle links between the
music and visuals. This includes when the
song includes whistling or humming, Bruno
and his cast members act out this whistling
which could also suggest a link between
