A textual analysis on the music video of Take On Me (A-ha). Includes the editing, camera shots and the meaning of the lyrics. Gives the audience more knowledge of the meaning behind the music video.

1. Textual Analysis-
Take On Me (A-ha)
By Eloise Neath

2. Andrew Goodwins Theory
1. Music videos more often than not tend to include a
demonstration of typical genre characteristics.
2. There are frequent references to the concept of looking and
the treatment of the female body. The notion of looking
includes men or women being portrayed seductively or if
there is eye contact with the camera.
3. There is a succinct relationship between music and visuals.
e.g. either illustrative, amplifying and contradicting.
4. The record label which the artist is assigned to tends to
have certain demands. They often include the need for lots
of close ups of the artist and the artist will have a visual
style which recurs across their work.
5. There is often intertextual references (to films, tv

3. Meaning of the lyrics
So needless to say
I'm odds and ends, but
upbeat
Stumbling away
Slowly learning that life is
ok
Say after me
It's no better to be safe
than sorry
I believe this part of the song is telling the
story about how one of the characters (the
man) is wanting to tell the women how he
feels but it too worried and is fighting his
feelings to tell her. This is shown in the
pictures as they show him to be fighting
different characters to win over the women.

4. Camera Shots
Take On Me used variety of different
camera shots and angles throughout
the video. At one point, the comic book
characters were completely alive as
they used all the different shots such
as close ups and mid shots to express
this. The most interesting part about
the camera work in this music video
was at the start when it simply
focussed on the comic book, this gives
the audience a bit more background
knowledge of what the story is about.
At this point it was zoomed out and
showed several parts of the comic
book, however it then began to zoom
in and use close ups on one particular
extract from the comic book. The

5. Editing
The whole of the video the editing crosses between reality of a
normal picture and fictional of a cartoon. This changes the affect of
the video and makes it more fun for the audience to watch as there
is a certain story behind it. It crosses from one comic to the next
showing they’re always on one continuous movement. This makes
the video very unique and energetic.