A2 media coursework

1. Analysing the use of costume in music
videos.

2. LADY
GAGA –
G.U.Y.
This is a short film
style music video
made in early 2014.
The song is about
female empowerment
and strength and has
the running theme of
fantasy and Greek
goddesses as well as
creativity.
The song is from
GaGa’s newest album
‘Art Pop.’

3. At the start of the video the first costume we
see GaGa in is an angel or fairy like costume.
She is wearing a pair of battered wings, a
skin tight body suit that is painted dark red
and an arrow coming through her chest. the
use of dull earthy reds and browns in her
costume as opposed to bright and vibrant
colours suggest that she is weak and in
danger of losing her life. This is also
suggested by the pale makeup used on her
face. This idea is reinforced by the way she
acts – struggling with pain and weakness.
The whole concept of the costume is backed
up with the lyrics “we are subjects of
fantasy” which is exactly what she is seen as
at the start of this video, a fantasy creature
subject to abuse because she is different.
The next costume we see her in is after she
has been pushed in the water and transforms
into a pure white costume covered in lace
and white feathers. This costume is a huge
contrast to the last costume we saw
previously. Now her costume connotes
purity, innocence and godliness s. These
ideas are backed up again by the lyrics
because the word “Venus” is mentioned
frequently at this point implying that her old
body had died and transformed into a pure
goddess.
We can see already that GaGa likes to use
costumes to reflect meanings and lyrics as
she often does in her music videos. So the
audience almost expects these elaborate
and conceptual costumes from her.

4. The previous ideas of GaGa being God like is
represented further for the rest of the video through
the use of costume.
In the next few shots we see Gaga in Pure white again,
but it is worn in different ways, giving off slightly
different ideas.
First we see her standing by of a bush of white flowers
wearing a long platinum white wig and a white latex
leotard. Since this song is about female sexual power, I
think this outfit is trying to represent purity and
godliness but at the same time sexuality and femininity
through the use of the long hair, white flowers and the
way the leotard hugs her body and covers so little of
her.
These ideas are represented in the following outfits
after this one but more dramatically. Next she is seen
wearing nothing at all, with only a strand of sky blue
fabric winding around her body along with her long hair
doing the same. Again this draws a lot of attention to
her womanly body however she isn’t sexualised in these
shots because she's represented more like a piece of art
as she does not act in a suggestive manor.
After this we see her again dressed in white underwear
in a white room on a podium. She is dressed similarly to
the first shot with the white rose bush however this
time she is wearing a lot less and is surrounded by back
up dancers who are dressed similarly to her. In these
shots she is dancing a little more suggestively and is
surrounded by red roses this time. With this she could
be trying to show that the has a soft and innocent side
and an aggressive and passionate side because of the
colour and costume changes. These changes in her
character is also reflected in the music as the lyrics as
they get increasingly sexual at this point.

5. The sexual themes start to develop as
Gaga’s costumes start to follow the similar
style of the previous costume – still
following the godly theme however the
outfits are more sexual and suggestive.
In the next few shots we see her still
wearing the long white wig, still connoting
ideas of femininity and purity, but as well
as this she is seen wearing a range of
different outfits that hug her body and
show it off but elements of it still link to
the theme of the song. For example we
see her wearing gold Greek/Roman style
underwear holding a gold bow and arrow.
This costume sexualises her and shows off
a lot of her body which relates to the song
which is about her ideas about love and
sex. But it also relates to Greek gods and
mythology because of the style in which
the costume is designed, implying that
she is still god like.
After these shots we see her approach the
‘God’ theme in a different way through
the use of her costume. This time she
takes a more futuristic and scientific
approach. She is seen wearing a long
white lab coat style outfit and in other
shots she is seen in in a transparent and
silver dress. These outfits both relate to
her actions in these shots in which she
brings back famous people frim history
back to life, so the element of being pure
and god like is still there but is
approached from a futuristic science
respect.

6. PARAMORE –
PLAYING GOD
This is a song from alternative rock band
Paramore’s third studio album ‘Brand
New Eyes’. This song is about faith, being
blindly opinionated and pretending to be
someone you're not.

7. Although the
costumes
featured in this
video are not as
elaborate as in
the Lady GaGa
video, the
costumes in the
video still reflect
the narrative of
the video, the
style of music
and messages
within the song
but in a more
subtle way.
The lead singer in
this video is the
only one seen
wearing any kind
of themed
costume. The
first one we see
her wearing is
this red and black dress with matching bow hair clip, fragmented tights, and bright pink wavy hair. This outfit is very
ordinary and conservative looking and almost gives off the impression that she's innocent. This is ironic however as we
only see her wearing this outfit when she is in a dark room ripping photographs and plotting revenge. The red colour of
her dress connotes that she could be a dangerous person. This outfit goes with the more threatening and intimidating
parts of the lyrics such as “how can that be logical, just keep on cramming ideas down my throat.” because this outfit
makes her seem more aggressive.

8. The other costume we see the lead singer in is a grey
tea length sleeveless dress which is very conservative
and formal looking. Her hair has more of a controlled
and formal curl to it this time too so she does not
have that childish look anymore however she still has
that look of innocence and class.
Again, ironically, we only see her in this outfit when
she is around other people acting aggressive and
confrontational. Her appearance becomes something
totally opposite to her character – she looks quiet
and unsuspecting but she is actually aggressive and
dangerous.
After she poisons her fellow bandmates she puts on
these black and white glasses. By putting these on
she seems expressionless and uncaring almost as if
she is using the glasses to blind herself from what she
has done so she cant see how bad it is. Interestingly
the glasses are black on one side and white on the
other. I thing these glasses were chosen intentionally
to reflect her split personality in this video which
again related to the idea that what she looks like and
who she is are two binary opposites. It also relates to
the lyrics “I’m on both sides of the fence” because
she leads a double life.

9. In contrast to the lead singer the other members of the band are seen wearing dark and dull colours that
don’t really reflect their personality at all. The use of dark colours could be to foreshadow their bleak
and dark future because they end up being poisoned. The clothes also look laid back and informal, a
style often seen by people in the rock music scene.

10. MY
CHEMICAL
ROMANCE –
NA NA NA
This is a song from MCR’s 4th
studio album ‘Danger Days: The
True Lives Of The Fabulous
Killjoys’ and follows the theme
of living in a comic book like
world.

11. This video is about a group of people living in
futuristic California that have teamed up against
the major corporation ‘Bli’ that have taken
control of the towns and cities. The storyline for
this video is continued over two videos and was
inspired by the lead singers original comic book
series ‘Killjoys’.
The style and storyline in this music videos
heavily influences the costumes used. This time
the costumes are used for the only purpose of
getting into character and creating a persona for
the band (something they do quite often in their
videos)
In the video the band members play the part of
‘the good guys’ so they are seen wearing
incredibly bright and lively colours which is
common in comic books because the good guys
are often the ones that are the brightest. It gives
off the impression that they are superhero
through the use of masks and customised outfits
that match their hero names (eg. The lead singers
hero name is ‘party poison’ and his jacket has a
pill on the back and his masks make references to
pills and smoking through a pipe). Despite this
they do not look like conventional super heroes.
Their laid back, messy jacket and jeans style
suggest they are more like rebellious outlaws
than heroes.

12. In contrast to the bright colours of the band members, the bad guys in the narrative are seen wearing
dull and dark colours and long heavy jackets that make them seem powerful. The dark colours may
represent their dark personalities and intentions in the narrative.
The character wearing the vampire masks are seen in black and white uniform that is very lean and
clinical. This relates to the story in that the corporation is like an infection and it turns people into drone
like beings with no personality or individuality, hence the uniform style costume.