A video analysis for Dido's 'Life for Rent'

1. Music Video Analysis: Dido – Life for Rent
Dido is a successful English singer and songwriter; the single ‘Life for Rent’ was the third single
released from her second album entitled ‘Life for Rent’ it was released on the 1st of September
2003, 3 months after the release of the album. Dido began recording in 1995 under Nettwerk
management, after recording many demo tracks she was then signed by Arista Records in the USA,
and made a deal with her brother’s record label: Cheeky Records. Her record label was then sold to
BMG in 1999, making her part of the second largest music labels in the world. She has a lot of
musical influence from Sarah McLachlan, after performing with her in her Lilith Fair tour in 1999.
She also helped co-write songs for Faithless and also Eminem, and appeared in his video for the
single ‘Stan’.
Music Videos are important to modern day artists, as they are a means of selling and
promoting their songs. The music video helps to display the genre characteristics to help
demonstrate to the audience if it is a genre they would like or not. The music video helps to express
the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals shown, and also the music and the visuals in the
video. The music video is designed to sell the artists, as it is the record companies ‘product’. They
sell the artist by incorporating plenty of close ups and voyeuristic camera movements, as well as
gazing into the camera to engage the audience, and grab their attention to the artist. As well as
this the video makes the relationship between the artist and the fan seem much more personal as
the artists will often look into the camera as if looking directly at, and talking to the fan.
Sony Music Entertainment signed Dido back in 1999, it was founded in 1987 as CBS Records,
it wasn’t until 1991 that Sony Music was launched and then re-launched in 2008. It became the
success that it is today due to the buying and selling of many minor record labels, as well as mergers
with them such as BMG in 2004. Other artists on this label include Britney Spears and Celine Dion,
both of which produce big budget extravaganza music videos.
Dido sings music that is considered to be of the pop/rock genre or one with a bit of a
balladic tone, due to the messages behind the songs. In a Dido video I wouldn’t expect to see her
performing live on stage, or if she was it would not be the main feature of the video. I would expect
the video to have some sort of narrative, or theme behind it, with her singing directly to the video,
as if telling a story to the viewer.
The audience at which this video is aimed at, I would say, are people who can relate to the
artists themselves. So for instances young females who are going through similar things as the
artist seems to be in the song, for example no longer following their dreams, and getting caught up
in the pointless things in life, and not living life to the full. Similarly to Young and Rubicam’s theory
that the more awareness that the audience has with the artist/brand the more they will like it, as
well as the originality of the music video, it is much more probable that the audience will want to
watch the music video more.
The video begins with an extreme close up of the artists eyes.
This is showing the audience who the artist is, and by having the first
shot of the eyes, it is clear from then on that the artist is singing to
the audience; it makes the video seem much more personal from then
on. Although the singer is not looking directly at the audience at the
beginning, it is only a few seconds later until they stare directly into
the camera, as if to say to the viewer, I’m talking to you. This
technique makes the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable and so are
more inclined to continue watching the video as they are intrigued as to what will happen next as it
is slightly different.

2. The lyrics and meaning behind the song are being represented by the
setting and Dido’s costume and body language. The positioning of her in the
centre of the room, and completely alone shows how she is feeling and the
colour of the scene, and the costume, all black, is how she sees herself and
her life perhaps; living in the dark, and with nothing, which relates to the
song title ‘Life for Rent’ as in a rented house, nothing in it is really yours,
you are simply living in it. The song itself is a metaphor, and the video and
the visual effects it uses are to help represent the metaphor.
The cuts and edits in the video remain slow and steady
throughout. It is only until the end of the song, as the music begins
to speed up do the cuts become more frequent and the camera
movements become much faster. The edits in this video are mainly
cross dissolves and fades, this is to help slow the song down, and
represent the meaning behind it. The song itself it’s more of an
emotional one, explaining how the artist, or person the artist is representing feels and so the edits
must show this. In the shot on the right, overlap of shots is used to represent the lyrics of the
song. It is showing where the artist would like to be, and in her head that is where she is, but the
next shot is of her back in the dark room. The lyric before this change is ‘only a thought’ this is
using the visual effects of the video to represent the lyrics and song meaning.
As well as having many slowly paced edits and cuts, the camera movements also remain very
slow and steady through out. For instance there are a lot of tracking shots backwards, these help to
engage the audience at the start, but then see where and how the artist is feeling, to establish
their location.
The mise-en-scene changes as soon as the speed of the song begins to
change, dido’s dress is now red. Red being a colour of many strong
connotations, ones of passion and anger, both of which are being
represented by her actions in the first shot we see of her in the red dress.
She is throwing a bunch of flowers at the call. The action of throwing
representing her anger and the flowers are something we associate with
many different things, life and love, as flowers can often be given as a gift,
and therefore we see a different side
of the artist. One which is fighting back and taking a stand
against things she doesn’t believe, and trying to break free from
her confines, and follow her dream. As the next shot we see of
Dido in a red dress is by the sea, and the sea was mentioned in a
previous line as being one of her dreams. This sends a message
out to the viewer saying that if you fight for what you want and
believe in you will get it.
The video for ‘Life for Rent’ is able to sell the artist as
they include lots of close ups, and the only person in the video is Dido, and so the viewer is not able
to get distracted by anyone else in it, and it will be clear to them throughout the whole video who
the artist is. The artists is being seen as someone who is prepared to fight for her beliefs and
views, as well as being someone with strong morals and feelings, it is sending a message to the
viewer to do the same, and fight for things in life as they wont come easy, and there are many
things that will stop you from getting them. This music video is similar to some of her other videos,
as in others she is also seen alone, and singing to the camera, through close ups. They are also
addressing issues that the target audience will be able to relate to, for example ‘Thank You’ is about

3. a relationship that ended, and the effect it had on her; a topic which many of her intended audience
will be able to relate to.