Goodwin's Music Video Analysis - Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

Genre Characteristics:

In this music video called 'Call Me Maybe' by 'Carly Rae Jepsen' the key characteristics is a boy/girl relationship. In the 'Pop' industry of music they are really mainstream in having a love story or some kind of relationship with a boy and a girl. In this video it starts of with mid shots of both the boy and girl, and the fact that you see Carly Rae Jepsen singing straight from the beginning introduces the audience to the setting of the song. Audiences will know straight away that is a pop song due to the video showing a relationship between a boy and a girl. This is used very commonly and is the narrative part of the video that links in well with the song because of the lyrics. 

Another characteristic is that in 'Pop' videos you will most likely see performances of the bands that come in and out of shots. This music video backs that by introducing the band with close ups of the members and them playing their instruments in and around the video, also shots like mid shots and long shots are introduced as well to show the members playing their instruments throughout the video every now and again. The close up shots is used very often on the lead singer (Carly Rae Jepsen) a lot in this video with the band in the background and this reminds the audience that this is a 'Pop' video and that 'Pop' videos do use half narrative and half performance based videos a lot which shows the common characteristics of the 'Pop' genre.

Another characteristic in the 'Pop' genre is the location of the video. In this video the band are performing in a garage. This is a very common place to shoot a music video and is common for two genres, one which is 'Rock' and the other genre being 'Pop'. The long shot is also used a lot throughout the middle to the end of the video showing the garage with the band and CR Jepsen inside performing. This shows that a lot of 'Pop' videos are mainstream but yet are still very popular and still grabs the audience's attention

Relationship Between Lyrics and Visuals:

In this music video called 'Call Me Maybe' there is a very strong illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals in the song. For example near the opening of the song CR Jepsen says "Your stare was holdin', Ripped jeans, skin was showin'" which was followed by mid shot that was also at the same time panning to the left of the boy showing his body (skin) who was also indeed wearing navy jeans.

Another example of a very strong illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals in the song was at the end of the video where the lead singer CR Jepsen is singing towards the boy and then says "So call me, maybe?". Followed from that line, you see a mid shot of the boy next to one of the band members who gives a small piece of paper to him with his number on it saying 'Call Me'. This shows the contradiction of the lyrics and the visuals in the song. 

Relationship Between Music and Visuals:

There is a very strong relationship between the music and visuals in a illustrative way. For example in the Close Ups and Long Shots of CR Jepsen singing into the microphone shows the audience that she is the lead role in this group and is therefore the main singer for this song. The long shots of the whole group showing the band in the background highlights that they have a their role in the group which would make the audience see that they are the band who provide the background music or instrumental of the song.

Also, seeing Close Ups and Mid Shots of each member of the band playing their own specified instrument highlights the fact that they know their roles in the group such as a member could show they are the one playing the guitar. 

Demands of the Record Label:

Goodwin’s theory highlights the fact that in order to meet the demands of the record label close up shots need to be used in order to introduce the band to the audience. For example the medium/close ups of CR Jepsen in front of her band is used in this 'Pop' video to show that she is the lead singer. 

The fact there are a lot of camera shots used to introduce the band like mid shots and close ups, shows the audience and the record label the band performing on their instruments, giving them their own space and image. Which allows them to take advantage of the shots by creating an image that would represent them in the video. Such as in this video on of the guitarist and the keyboardist are both wearing either black or grey hats as they know it will show to the audience how they feel on how they want to be represented. Therefore, setting trends to other band members in different bands on how to look for the part.

Notion of Looking & Particularly Voyeuristic Treatment of the Female Body:

There is that feel to the notion of looking and the voyeuristic treatment of the female body in this music video. As the lead singer CR Jepsen tries to look 'Sexy' when she's cleaning a car as she does it in a very sexual manner. Even though this is a 'Pop' video for teenage girls mainly, you do see mid shots of CR Jepsen laying on the bonnet of the car trying to seduce the boy she likes which gives off a vibe to the audience that if you're a girl you should use your body to grab a boys attention. But CR Jepsen uses this in a way that you shouldn't go over the top as she is not naked. She's doing it in a way for girls to do it like her.

Intertextual References:

There is some intertextual references in this video towards other 'Pop' music videos. The only link in this video compared to other videos in the same genre is the relationship of a boy and a girl. It's either one want to impress the other one or is in a love with them. But they're still the same as it involves both of the parties every time. This video demonstrates that one is impressing the other one in order for them to either notice them or go out with them.

Whether the Video is Primarily Performance Based, Narrative Based or Concept Based and How Elements of Each is Used in it:

Particularly in this music video, 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen I would it's half performance based and half narrative based. The reason being there are many shots like the long shot and mid shots of the whole band performing. Which due to the long shots and mid shots you see them playing on their instruments which shows the performance side of the video.

Furthermore, there is a story behind this song, the story being a girl has a crush in a boy and she does stuff to get him to notice her. But because you see her acting in the video but then seeing her with her band singing it tells us that this video is not primarily based on only one type of a music video. Also, due to some of the lyrics linking in with story, for example linking back to when CR Jepsen says "Your stare was holdin', Ripped jeans, skin was showin'" and seeing that in the video emphasizes that teenage girls are weak when it comes to someone they like. Therefore, because there is a narrative in the background and performances of the band in the music video, this means that it based on two of the three types. Those types being performance and narrative based videos.