1. Dom Hayes
Music Video Analysis 2
Ed Sheeran – Give Me Love
Target Audience: 15-25 both male + females
Genre: Pop
Nick Lacey’s repertoire of elements can be applied to find out the genre of music videos, films and
any other media texts. It is seen in this music video and can be applied by consisting of characters,
narrative, iconography, setting and style.
In this music video the application of Lacey’s theory allows the audience to identify the style of the
video. The video is driven by one character in particular, a girl who is shown at the start as if she has
died, this then leads to us seeing her as the mythological cupid. The giver of love, this being an
intertextual reference to the song name and being very conventional of music videos in the pop
genre. As well as this the video is very ‘Meta-modern’ in the way it almost puts forward the views of
mythology with the way this woman is represented, she is seen as the giver of love which is almost
biblical relating to angels, the famous cupid character and even the Greek god Aphrodite.
Unconventionally Ed Sheeran does not actually star in the video at any point, this suggests that the
music video is going to be focused mainly on the narrative of the song, it is in somewhat
conventional to run the video specifically on narrative. The secondary characters in the music video
are there conventionally as they portray love within the music video and are able to put the
narrative together which is successfully done by the maker of the video as it works to the
conventional ways of a pop music video as they are usually focused around the theme of love.
2. Dom Hayes
Music Video Analysis 2
The narrative of this film using Lacey’s theory is very unusual to the context of how the story it has
actually is. The protagonist of the music video is there to create Strauss’ theory of binary opposition
in the narrative, as she is an angel/god this creates opposites between mortals and myth to
distinguish the power of angels/gods in the narrative. The actual story of the video is following the
woman with a bow shooting people to spread love in the world which makes the narrative of this
very unusual as it suggests she had a broken relationship at the start as she is presented as dead so
she has to spread the love where at the end she is brought back to life for the deed that she has
done. This can be linked to Todorov’s theory of equilibrium as despite her being dead at the start it
suggestively starts with the disruption, she acknowledges this and attempts to resolve it by
spreading love around the world, this is then brought back to equilibrium by the policeman at the
end coming in and as the audience think is him waking her through his love much alike in a fairy-tale.
It creates a more fragmented narrative as the audience are left at the start with no idea what is
going on how this girl has just suddenly became an angel or god and started to spread love, which
leads to the ending having an enigmatic effect much alike the Barthes theory of the enigma code as
she is awaken by a policemen, by love it can be suggested.
In terms of iconography the props that are used are extremely iconic to the theme of love, this is
very conventional of the pop genre in music videos and ‘Give Me Love’ portrays this successfully in
terms of Lacey’s theory. The props that are used create a very fantasy feel of the video which is
unusual for a love music video, in this video the two key examples are the wings she has and the
bow, both of these in fantasy are iconic for love, for angels and myth. The two are useful as despite
the video being fragmented these two props sum up the whole narrative as the wings allow the
audience to think she is an angel. The bow on the other hand is representing love as she fires arrows
at secondary characters in the video to make them kiss, this despite the audience not following a full
blown narrative, they are able to get a gist of the music video and that it is to do with love and
fantasy. The props that are used create a very iconic feel to the music video and also present it as
very unconventional in the way it is represented.
The setting of the music video is very conventional of a pop music video, it is set in an urban city and
hat this angel/god is looking over the people there and spreading the love. This is much like a fairytale Hollywood movie style type of video like the angel looking over the city; it works in favour of
Steve Neale’s repetition and difference theory because of this. For example it is very different to
most pop music videos that are associated with love as it isn’t portraying them as rich and powerful,
3. Dom Hayes
Music Video Analysis 2
it is sowing normal everyday people being helped by an angel, it is all like a fantasy book and very
unusual in this aspect making it work successful.
Through the technical and audio codes of the music video it is presenting the theme of love very
conventionally. We see lots of medium/long shots of people kissing to portray love in the video. Also
there are lots of close ups of the angel/god which she is portrayed as the protagonist of the video so
this is therefore very conventional of the music video to show lots of shots of the star in the video.
There is also the creation of binary oppositions through the lighting that is used, there is always
brightness on the woman as she is the giver of hope and love to the people, she is presented as a
hero in this video and there is usually darkness where there is no love being portrayed, this is
conventional of the music video to do so despite it being very unusual.
To conclude this music video of ‘Give Me Love’ is very useful when applying Nick Lacey’s repertoire
of elements theory but also when applying others too. It is unconventional in some aspects which
works very well to Neale’s theory as it is different from other pop music videos as it defies the usual
prospects and iconography of love themed music videos in the pop genre. This is very successful in
the way it is done and makes ‘Give Me Love’ a very strong music video to analyse.
