2. BARTHES THEORY
There is an enigma in the music video throughout
because she it tells a tale of the night before, however
there is also an enigma in the music video storyline
where there is a drastic change of scene to an
imaginary place, which shows an enigma into the
mind and imagination of the geeky boy at the party.
Barthes theory can be applied to the video through the way in which
the video is structured because by following the enigma theory we can
see that the storyline of the music video unfolds, the story of her
waking up on Saturday morning after having hosted a house party the
night before on the Friday night.
The enigma theory is that there is a story which unravels to create
interest and draw an audience in, in this video’s case it is the story of
the young girl and her transformation from being supposedly geeky and
unattractive to being popular and stylish. As the music video goes on
the story unfolds of everything that happened the night before, which is
interesting to an audience and draws the audience in, because they
want to keep watching the music video to see what happens, like
Barthes’ theory implied.
It proves that Barthes’ theory is right and that audiences are more
drawn in by things that represent or tell a story, because it was a very
popular song and the audience liked to talk about the character of
Kathy in the music video and how she transforms into becoming a
party girl as oppose to being nerdy.
This shows the enigma theory because it shows the start
of the music video where she is waking up in bed in the
morning and realising and remembering what happened
the night before, and then it skips to showing you what
happened the night before, which shows a storyline
unfolding because it is explaining the events that led up to
where she is now, allowing for a plotline and storyline to
gradually be revealed like Barthes’ enigma theory
suggests most media products do to capture an audience.
3. NARRATIVE
The Narrative story can either be
LINEAR; whereby the plotline or storyline
of the video goes in chronological order to
tell a story, so there is a clear beginning,
start and end, or
NON LINEAR; whereby the video does
not go in chronological order but instead
either goes in flash forwards into the
future, flash backs into the past, or a full
circle.
Katy Perry's music video of ‘Last Friday
Night’ evidently has a non linear narrative
story which can be seen in the way the
music video ends in the same place it
started, with her in her room. It shows that
the story narrative has done a big circle
and ended up right back where it started,
allowing the viewer an insight into the
characters memories of the night before,
which makes the plotline and story.
The beginning of the video with her waking
up and looking around realising and
remembering what happened last night,
with her looking geeky with braces glasses
and her hair in a plait.
The middle part of the
video shows a
flashback to last night
when the girl partied
and it shows how she
got given a makeover
and dressed up by her
friend to look pretty and
popular.
The flashback continues throughout the
video of the party to show all the events
that happened last night leading up to
the morning after, which shows how the
plotline progresses and how the
character develops.
The end of the video is the same as the
beginning with her looking geeky again
and her sat in her bed the morning after
the party night, having now fully
remembered everything that happened,
showing that the narrative story has
come round in a full circle loop, making
it a non linear narrative.
STORY
4. LEVI STRAUSS THEORYBinary opposites was Levi strauss’ theory, that in videos there are complete binary opposites.
The girl is presented at the beginning to be nerdy geeky,
childish, a girl who likes to dress in childish pastel coloured
clothes, and focuses on her studying because she is seen
to have a poster of the planets by her bed and the way she
is seen to be holding large books and a pen in her hand as
if she is studying. Her large glasses, braces, plait, and
plaster on her knee also suggest that she is stereotypically
nerdy because it implies she is clumsy and doesn’t hold
much regard for her personal appearance.
The girl being presented as pretty, popular, and social,
which is a binary opposite to how she was represented
earlier in the music video and at the end of the music
video. The idea being that the binary opposite is
emphasised because she goes from being nerdy and
unpopular to being beautiful and social, which is the
main focus of the music video and interest of the music
video. The binary opposite is effective because it is
meant to shock and interest the viewer because of how
drastically she has been made over.
This scene is a binary opposite to the rest of the music
video because it is set in a completely different place, time
period, and situation. This binary opposite has been done
to give an insight into the teenage boys mind and show
that he fancies her and imagines them kissing and her
being his princess and him being the knight. This binary
opposite is effective because it is amusing to viewers and
allows people insight into the boys mind and what the
social situation is among the party.
5. VLADIMIR PROPP THEORY
Vladimir Propp came up with the theory that videos presented 6 different character types, the hero, the princess, the
helper, the dispatcher, the villain, the donor, and the false hero.
This character in the music video is
represented as the princess character,
which can be seen when she is represented
as the object of desire or an object to obtain
by the jock guy and by the nerdy guy,
making her the ‘prize’ character, and also
where she is represented as being a damsel
in distress in the medevil scene of the boys
imagination, which emphasises the idea of
her being the main female character and in
the main spotlight / princess role throughout
the music video. The effectiveness of her
character in the music video
is key because she is the
main character and she
allows for the storyline
and plotline to develop.
The Princess The Hero The Helper
This character of the
nerdy boy at the house
party is clearly
represented as the
hero character
because he is shown
to stab the jock
character in the joust
that goes on inside his
head, meaning he is
mentally winning the
fight against the jock
character in real life as
he is punching him for
behaving inappropriately towards the main character
of the geeky girl, and by doing so winning the girl
over and becoming the ultimate hero who gets the
girl.
This character in the
music video is
represented as the
helper character
because she is seen
to be the friend of the
princess and takes
her upstairs in the
house to give the main character a makeover to
make her beautiful and popular, making her
character the ‘helper’ because of her role of helping
the main princess character become the pretty
popular girl that she is in the video. Her role as the
helper and sidekick of the main character is effective
because it is a key aspect and part of the music
video that allows for the main character to transform.
