The music video for Lisa Loeb's "Stay" broke conventions through its single continuous shot that followed Lisa through her apartment with various angles but no cuts. This created a narrative of Lisa reflecting on a failed relationship represented by empty rooms and a cat alone on a chair. Close-up shots conveyed Lisa's emotions while singing sincerely about love. The rustic unfinished apartment and empty spaces suggested an incomplete relationship ending. Props like metal items provided continuity and sophistication, while Lisa at the door and window connected to the song's lyrics about looking for answers. By the end, Lisa walking away implied her readiness to move on.

1. B Y T H O M A S M A D D E N
ANALYSIS OF A MUSIC VIDEO
LISA LOEB- STAY

2. MUSIC VIDEO-
We in the lesson looked at a music video
that was for Lisa Loeb and the video had
many dynamic new techniques that
potentially broke rules and normal
characteristics of music videos; making it
a diverse music video. Although, it took
time to realise the music video was
different, when I did I realized how clever
the music video was. This was because it
was produced with no cuts, yet still had
many different angle shots and created a
narrative. The camera followed Lisa Loeb
from the apartment and around the
apartment tracking her every move.
To begin with the music video starts with a
cat on a black painted metallic chair and
this signified the start and also kept a
sense of continuity I the scene as the chair
becomes empty and the cat is then in
another room towards the end. It also
helped the narrative of the song, that she
was singing because someone is leaving.
This is because most single woman are
stereotypically associated with having a
house pet.

3. CINEMATOGRAPHY
There are a variety of shots and that is what makes the
music video diverse and very clever in the way that it is
produced because she is being tracked with the camera
not individual shots. I think also that the rustic feel of the
apartment where the plaster is untouched also creates a
potential narrative that something in the relationship she is
singing about is unfinished and that she wants to either
keep the relationship going to finish it or prevent it from
breaking.
There are such a range of close up shots that conform to
Goodwin's analysis that in music videos there is a great
use of close-ups to convey emotion and show the face of
the artist. I feel that from a spectators view, they were
necessary as without them the music video would not
have worked. This is because there are no cuts from
different locations so we would not have known how the
female was feeling and what she was trying to convey
from her performance. They also made the love that she
was singing about, quite sincere as it felt very real.
There are also different kinds of cinematography that
highlight and blend in with the narrative also as the allow
to run when the music reaches a pinnacle and that was
nice to se cause it meant that the dancing would allow
more emotion. I also feel that the use of the extreme-wide
shots signify how big the apartment is yet, how empty it is.
This might be connoting how the relationship has turned
out like.

4. PROPS/MISE-EN-SCENE/MOVEMENT
As, the music video commences there are
metallic items around the house this is carried
on to create a sense of continuity with not only
the props but the narrative. It does this because
tit highlights how the apartment is unfinished
but, this also adds a sense of sophistication to
the apartment as, it is made really well and has
this French boutique furniture feel surrounding it.
The fact that the metal is highlighted at the
beginning and near to the end must be
somewhat significant as, it is intentional. I feel
that it would make the audience question its
existence rather then, actually know the
answer.
The transition from room to room is very clean
and precise and this works really were with the
overall stylistic feel of the music video, because
there are no cuts is has to show that she is
moving from room to room, without breaking
the still frame and the audiences eye.
•

5. MUSIC VIDEO
• She is at a door and at a window in the
music video and this signified that there
was a correlation to the lyrics and the
direction of the music video. It was almost
as if she was looking for an answer to why
the relationship she was in had finished.
The fact that at the end she is actually
walking out of the empty house suggests
that she is ready to move on from past
events and start new. Which comes across
as very sincere, especially through the
body language of Loeb, as she is moving
her arms looking around with a emotional
sway, which if anything helps the
audience to feel sympathetic to what
Loeb has gone through or what she is
trying to portray.