Music Video Analysis 2

Great you better by Shawn Mendes

Genre: Pop

Release date: 12 Jul 2016

• Relationship Between Visuals + Lyrics 

There are some relations between the lyrics and the visuals. When Shawn sings about the girl and how her boyfriend treats her, audience see the girl being abused my her boyfriend.

Also when he said "But I see it on yours face" we get a shot of the girls face and her boyfriends hand. 

Genre characteristics

The conventions of pop genre are different but they all mainly based on relationships and love.

This song shows Shawn caring about the girl and wanting her to be with him while she has a boyfriend who abuses her. 

Often pop artists express the unity associated with teens, which is the main target audience for this genre. However, they are usually themed with bright and bold colours but in this music video the mise en scene is dark and dull. 

Performance, Narrative and/or Concept

This is a concept as well as narrative based music video. It features a story where Shawn is not abled to get the girl who is being tortured by her boyfriend. It is as well a concept based as it has shots of Shawn in his bedroom and all of a sudden he appears in the girls bedroom. The camera work and editing makes it look as if he was in the bedroom with the girl and saw what her boyfriend was doing to her. 

Looking/Mode of Address 

When Shawn sing "Treat you better" he looks straight into the camera and makes eye contact with the audience as he sing "you" to make the audience involved as the uses and gratifications theory would have it. 

Representations 

The representation of gender shows how women are treated in media. The girl is being abused and humiliated my her boyfriend. In turns of age they are all young and in their twenties, which suggests their unexperienced relationships creating this love triangle. The girl is clothed in very open clothing which creates Male Gaze. Her boyfriend was wearing a shirt towards the end of the video which shows who are the audience for this music video.

Locations + Mise-en-scene

There are 6 locations where the protagonists were featured. First one is inside a car where the girl and her boyfriend get into the argument in. Her house and bedroom where she gets abused by her boyfriend and bathroom where she is crying and looking at herself in the mirror. There is also Shans bathroom where he looks in the mirror and understands that he can't help her, and a bedroom where he sings hopelessly. At the end the girl goes to the night club where he tries to forget her problems where then she sees her boyfriend with another girl.0