Having analyzed one music video, it is now time to analyze another one and this time I have chosen "Havana" - Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug.
You can watch the video below and then move on to reading the analysis.
The song "Havana" by Camila Cabello is from the album "Camila" and was released on the 8th of September 2017. The genres of the song are Pop and Latin Pop. The record labels behind this song are Epic Records and Syco Music. It was directed by Dave Meyers, produced by Frank Dukes and written by Camila Cabello, Brittany Hazard and Ali Tamposi. The music video is a mixture of a narrative and performance based music video and the stars include Camila Cabello, Lele Pons, Noah Centineo and LeJuan James.
Similar to my previous analysis, before moving onto the actual analysis, I am going to summarize the narrative of the video. The narrative involves an introvert named Karla and the video begins with her watching a telenovela which stars Camila who walks in her boyfriend with two other ladies but it turns out that it wasn't actually her boyfriend but his twin brother and just as her boyfriend proposes, Karla's grandmother turns the TV off. She wants Karla to have a live and asks her to go dancing with her sister but both Karla and her sister refuse. Afterwards, Karla listens to her grandmother's advice and leaves to watch a movie called "Camila in Havana" which takes the form of a music video. She keeps dancing in the club and later breaks up with the male protagonist claiming to love herself more in the movie and as it ends, Karla is left disturbed who asks "Wait a minute. That's it? That's the ending? You end up alone?" and the actress responds with "Hey sweetie. If you don't like my story, go write your own." After this Karla leaves the cinema and starts dancing on the street where she meets a dancer and starts dancing with him. This is where the video ends with Karla dancing with the cyclist, her grandma dancing in home and her sister shocked to see Karla dancing in the street.
Let's discuss the type of music video, having explained the narrative above, it justifies calling it a narrative video and what makes it a performance video as well is the fact that Camila is lip syncing almost throughout the video and she performs in the movie as well. Hence we can call it a narrative/performance based video. Another element of this video is cameos of Lele Pons and LeJuan James.
The themes of the video include glamour, beauty, power, desire, women, retro, dream, love and wealth.
Moving on to the theories applicable to this video, I will again start with Todorov's theory of equilibrium. When Karla is watching the drama, there is equilibrium which gets disturbed when her grandmother turns the TV off and asks her to go dancing, the resolution begins when she goes to the cinema and finally, with the dancing on the street, comes the new equilibrium.
Next we can find Strauss's Binary Opposites theory with the binary opposites present of Blue vs. red, dream vs. reality and introvert vs. extrovert. This can also be tied to Sven E Carlson's theory of binary opposites.
We can also apply Freud's "Visual Pleasure" and Laura Mulvey's "Male Gaze" as well as the consequential "Female Gaze" theories to this video.
Other theories like Steve Archer's theory of the relation between performance and narrative (choreographed dance, cuts between performance and narrative and vice versa set mood and close-ups compel the audience), Michael Shore's theory of cliched imagery (nerdy girl, outgoing club girl etc) and John Stewart's inspiration theory (inspiration from films include vintage car, pulp fiction bar and Mary Jane pumps) can also be applied to this video. The reason for not explaining them all in detail is that unlike my previous analysis, the focus this time is not on applying theories but rather on representation in music videos.
So, let's move on to the representation in this music video. One of the things represented in this video is the concept of "dreamers". This concept comes from Barack Obama's DACA policy and the lives it impacted. Camila Cabello said "this is America, the America we love, where no matter your race, your color, your beliefs or where you came from, if you have a dream you can make it possible". The song also represents immigrants as the whole song relates to it and so does the concept of dreamers which is clearly mentioned.
The song also represents Cuba as Havana is the capital of Cuba and since Camila was born there, the line "Half of my heart is in Havana" could be representative of the fact that she misses Havana and considers it to be a part of her identity and herself to be a part of it.
The clothing, club and the mise-en-scene are representative of the 1950s and 60s era as they give a "classical" 50s and 60s appeal.
With the grandmother repeatedly saying that she will sue flip-flops to hit them, a typical family environment is represented with siblings fighting and the mother figure threatening to hit with slippers.
Camila's character, Karla, is representative of a typical nerd with "nerd clothes", little sense of fashion, introverted, socially awkward and interested in fantasy being part of her personality which are also typical nerd stereotypes.
The sisters are represented as cliches, one is outgoing, doesn't really listen to the grandmother unless threatened and the other is introverted, grandma's child. Both are opposites and have completely different preferences, hence, making them part of a cliche with two opposite sisters. Her sister is also representative of an extrovert and outgoing girl who is dressed in "revealing" clothing but which seems appropriate for her dancing night at the club and even in the end is seen with her "girlfriends" all dressed in a similar manner and returning like a cliche of such girls.
The light behind the male protagonist in the movie could be representative of hope and foreshadowing of something good, however, it can be representative of mystery and something dark as well due to the protagonist's face being hidden.
The shadow represents something dark or bad and is a foreshadowing as the guy and Camila break-up.
Also, a gay couple can be seen which can be representative of acceptance of the LGBT community.
Having discussed the representation in this music video, let's talk about the intertextuality present. First, let's discuss pastiche; it is a 50s and 60s retro, there is pastiche to Michael Jackson's thriller and Camila's entrance in the start is a pastiche of the infamous actress, Soraya Monetenegro, from an episode of Maria la del barrio. Coming to tribute, so the whole song pays tribute to her home country i.e. Cuba through its capital's name, Havana. Also, claque is present through the use of spanish words such as "Malo" and "Mula".
Another element present in this music video is Voyeurism. It has been employed to market the song and to gain the audience's attention. The camera angles emphasize the body and specific parts of the bodies of the performers, especially the females, objectifying them and using it to sell the song.
Talking about the camerawork, the camera movements used include pan, handheld and tracking, whereas the shots used include mid-shots, over-the-shoulder shot, close-ups, wide shots and the use of the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot.
Moving on to Editing, continuity editing has been used to present a linear narrative. Editing techniques such as Jump-cuts, eye line match, parallel editing and cutaways have been used. All the cuts used in the video are smooth and do not disturb the flow of the video.
With this I am going to wind up this analysis, having discussed elements that I didn't in the previous analysis and hence learning the implementation and practicality of these new elements of a music video.
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