1. Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements Music video analysis
By Georgia McLaughlin
Title –girls
Artist – The 1975
Genre – Indie/alternative combined with rock
Style – Performance and narrative
Genre theorist Nick Lacey is known for Lacey’s repertoire of elements. This refers to the five
Genre elements; Characters, Narrative events, Iconography, Setting and Technical and audio
codes. In the popular Alternative rock song ‘Girls’ by the 1975 theses 5 elements can be
referred to.
The characters featured in ‘Girls’ music video are the band ‘the 1975’ who are Matthew
‘Matty’ Healy, Ross MacDonald, Adam Hann and George Daniel. They are portraying a
stereotypical rock band that has their mind set on their video idea. However this could be
perceived as demanding. They are seen wearing all black and are fully covered up. In this
video they are parodying themselves as well as parodying stereotypical pop videos through
the use of bricolage as they are indie rock band that are playing an upbeat pop rock song in
a video that would be perceived as pop. The video
also features a female version of the band. They
are shown at the start with no emotion, wearing
all black and pretending to play the instruments.
This could be seen as an updated parody of
Robert palmers addicted to love music video as it
is more to the time in terms of what is considered
‘sexy’ in music videos. There are also various
other female characters used purely as traditional
female stereotypes. For example three women
are seen sunbathing under heat lamps another
would be the girl who is sat in her underwear on
the drummer’s knee as he plays the song.
The video is a mixture of performance and narrative. The lead sing matty said in an
interview when speaking about the video for girls “We have a pop production but the
narrative is dourer”. By doing this the contrast between the two is emphasised. The
narrative of the song is from a male perspective of a break up with a 17 year old girl. The
video is also making a undernoted comment about the sexualisation of women in pop music
videos by saying ‘there just girls’ and ’they can’t be what you need’ and showing the band
looking fed up and rolling their eyes when one of the girls does something stereotypical of a
girl in a music video like dancing in her underwear. This is also clear when the girls are seen
sunbathing in swimwear and matty walks in a says “this is just wonderful!” whilst waving his

2. hand and walking off set. The video starts in black and white with the band stood on the
performance set surrounded by amps against a white back drop. They are shown discussing
with each other and talking to the crew behind the camera; breaking the forth wall. They
say –
Matty: everything seems totally wrong. I mean it’s too, it’s so pop
George: I mean we’re just not; we’re not a pop band
Matty: We’re not a pop band and it feels like a really ‘pop’ video. The whole scenario is not really
what we’re about. It needs to be black and white for a start.
This further emphasises the characters and that
they are know what they want but in more of a
professional way instead of demanding. They
are also clearly stating that they are not a pop
band to avoid the confusion of later seeing a
‘pop’ style video. This also acts in a way of
parodying the generic pop video. This is then followed by a white noise sound whilst the
logo flashes on screen before the video begins in vibrant colour. Once again making the joke
that this is not what they normally do as they previously said “it needs to be black and white
for a start”, this also shows they are not getting their own way.
The music video for ‘Girls’ has a very strong us e of iconography from the start. First of all,
the video starts in black and white and is followed by the flash of their rectangular box logo
which is iconic of ‘the 1975’ and their brand. After this the video continues in vibrant colour
being stereotypical of the pop genre which is what they are parodying by being slight over
the top. There is a small scene where a blonde girl is
driving a car but she is looking out of the window and
singing and instead crashes. This fulfils the dumb blonde
stereotype and suggests that the video is another
example of how the video is commenting on how
women are portrayed in the media overall. This is also
clear when the girl is shown going back to the car crash
for her heels. When the car crashes pop art appears on
screen exclaiming “Crash!” this is another extreme that
the band went to too emphasise how this is a ‘Pop’
video instead of what they usually do. In one scene the
set is dressed with large black street lamps, a zebra crossing and a Volkswagen Beetle which
is stereotypically British. There is also use of phallic symbols in the video as one girl is seen
eating a hot dog in a perhaps sexualised manner. Another girl is seen only from the nose
down blowing a piece of bubble gum and later with different coloured cigarettes in her
mouth. There is also a neon ‘girls girls girls’ sign within the mise en scene of a scene which
gives connotations lust and voyeurism from a male perspective. This instantly adds to the
By Georgia McLaughlin

3. message that women are over sexualised in pop music videos so much so that it is
practically sign posted making it that obvious or suggesting it quickly becoming too much.
In this Music video many settings are used. The first is a
plain white setting with amps & the bands rectangular
logo within the mise en scene; this is the main set used
for the performance aspect of the video. This keeps it
simple and stays slightly true to the bands image until
everything is taken to the extreme. Directly after this Yellow backdrop is shown behind a
close up of matty looking fed up. The colour yellow gives
connotations of joy and once again the pop genre and
having matty look depressed in front of is emphasises
the contrast and shows that ‘happy pop music’ doesn’t
make him happy. Another scene that takes place is set at
a pool side BQQ. This scene once again uses highly
vibrant colours. The set is dresses with quite intentionally fake props including grass, BBQ
and nature back drop; perhaps suggesting that everything about the pop music industry is
fake. Too add to this at the start of the video close
ups are shown of the 1975’s guitars as they are
being played in a very controlled way, almost
robotic and some of the girls in the video also act
controlled, similar to a doll. The fact that the boys
are playing their guitars in a robotic way may be a
statement on the mass production of similar sounding pop artists. Another set in the video
is what looks like a modelling set. Featured on this set is various technical apparatus
including lighting, a white back drop and ladder which is stereotypical of a music video set.
There is pink lighting in the foreground and a small bit blue in the background perhaps
suggesting that the boys in the video are being outshone by the girls. A final point would be
that in terms of costume in the mise en scene the girls are often seen wearing either
underwear, a bikini or outfits that would be seen as promiscuous whereas the boys are
shown fully covered wearing all black.
Technical codes are editing and camera techniques; some that feature in the ‘Girls’ music
video include long shots of both the female and male version of that band together in full.
After this shot there is a close up of each band members guitar being played like a robot.
Another shot that is used is an overhead shot looking down on a
table showing various objects spelling out girls such as flowers or
sausages. At the beginning of the video there are exact replicas of
the boy’s shots when the girls are introduced. This is done to
establish which girl is portraying which band member. An obvious editing technique used at
the start is the use of a black and white effect. This is done to stay true to the bands image.
By Georgia McLaughlin

4. There are also close ups of the girls mouths from the nose
down. This is done is a sexualised manner as they are shown
blowing bubble gum, eating a hotdog or with a cigarette.
There are also various two shots to show the evolution of
the relationship between the real matty and the girl version
showing that he perhaps no longer only sees them as music
video girls. Finally, the only editing technique used in this video was cross cuts going from
location to location.
In conclusion I have found the video for this song is based on ‘Pop’ stereotypes despite this
being the opposite of what the bands image is. For example, below is a screenshot from
another one of their music videos which features the bands usual video style being ‘dark’
and ‘black and white’ compared to a shot from the girls video
I have also found that the ‘Girls’ video does follow Lacey’s repertoire of elements in a way to
make a joke out of themselves and the pop music genre. In addition to this I found that the
video succeeds as a parody as despite showing the girls as female equals to the band they
are dressed in their underwear unlike the boys conforming the sexual objectification of
women in music videos.
By Georgia McLaughlin