This document analyzes the music video for Cher's song "Believe" through several lenses: 1. It demonstrates common genre conventions of dance pop music videos through its nightclub setting and dance scenes. 2. The relationship between the lyrics and visuals starts as contradictory but becomes more illustrative as it shows the love story of two characters. 3. The music and visuals are closely linked, amplifying the dance beat through low camera angles of dancing and contradicting a sad ending through an upbeat rhythm. 4. Demands from the record label Warner Bros are evident through the frequent close-up shots of Cher performing, showing their desire for her prominence in the video over just a narrative.

1. Believe - Cher
Nina Piotrowska – Andrew
Goodwin

2. Demonstrates Genre
Conventions
 In the two medium shots on the left
the audience sees a clear genre
convention of dance pop –
nightclubs
 The music video is set in a
nightclub with people dancing and
enjoying the evening this is shown
through the mise en scene of outfits
and lighting
 Another genre convention of dance
pop was having music for people to
dance to especially in nightclubs
 Its origins are in nightclubs until it
became popular and hit mainstream

3. Relationship between lyrics and
visuals
 In the first close up of Cher the
lyrics could be seen as
contradicting to the visuals as the
audience is presented with Cher
when she is singing “do you
believe in life after love” – there
isn’t a love story that the audience
can currently see and we just see
her performing and singing
 However after the first verse we
are presented with two characters
shown with a medium shot and
then a close up – the lyrics say “I
can feel something inside of me
say” – this could be seen as
illustrative as if Cher is telling the
love story between these two
characters

4. Relationship between Music and
Visuals  In the music video we are
shown lots of medium shots and
low camera angles of people
dancing to accentuate that the
location is in a nightclub – this
amplifies the music as the
audience feel that they are
dancing to Cher’s song
 At the end of the video we see
one character standing on top of
a building looking down at her
lover with someone else,
however, the music doesn’t slow
down and keeps its fast tempo
and upbeat rhythm which
contradicts the visuals

5. Demands of the record label
 Throughout this music video we
are shown different shots of Cher
– medium shots, close ups, long
shots
 The record label for this song is
Warner Bros Record Inc.
 From the amount of visuals of
Cher we can infer that Warner
Bros wanted Cher to appear in
her music video a lot and not just
base it off a narrative but both
 If you look at other music videos
released by Cher like “Save up
all your tears” and “Love and
Understanding” there is a
recurring motif of Cher
performing either by singing or
dancing

6. Notion of looking
 We are shown one medium shot and
a low angle close up of a woman
dancing and wearing revealing
clothing
 The concept of voyeuristic and Laura
Mulvey’s theory of ‘Male Gaze’ is
shown through these two shots as we
are purposefully being shown this
woman to see her outfit and how she
is dancing – the low camera angle
also reinforces the male gaze as we
are placed to see a sexual part of a
woman’s body for the purpose of the
audience
 We get a notion of looking throughout
the video from Cher – this creates a
direct mode of address and in turn
creates an involvement for the
audience as if Cher was singing the
song directly to them

7. Intertextual References

8. Performance, Narrative or
Concept  We are introduced to two different
characters at the start of the video and
we follow their story and interaction
throughout the video – which links in
with Todorov’s theory of narrative as
we watch an order of events at the end
are presented with the new equilibrium
 From this the music video appears to
be narrative based as we follow the
two characters - this makes the
audience feel as though they know the
characters and have more empathy
towards what happens in their
narrative
 However, throughout the video we also
see Cher dancing and singing to her
song which her connotes the music
video is performance based - the
audience feel as though they are at a
concert with Cher
 The music video combines
performance and narrative based