Jordan Pruitt - Outside Looking In
The music video of which I will be analysing is Jordan Pruitt’s – Outside looking in. Jordan Pruitt is a Dance-Pop, singer/song writer from Hollywood. With her music style being something similar to what we are looking to include in our music video.
I believe that ‘Outside looking in’ follows all of the required codes and conventions that are essential for a music video; the genre characteristics, through the typical American High School setting and stereotypical teenage characters i.e. the Jock, Cheerleader, Geek. The lyrics fit the music video criteria due to their context about love/boy meets girl. The style of music also very much links in with the genre, with its acoustic sounding verses and more upbeat chorus. The need to sell the artist is also met, with the pretty teen being featured in the majority of the video, through a variety of camera shots i.e. close-ups, long shots, cantered. Furthermore, the editing of the video is very integral with the tempo of the music.
The lyrics in the video are very much about love and boy meets girl, which is an expectation for the typical teen genre. The song that we have picked has a lot more depth and meaning, referring to self-belief, confidence and inner beauty, which is something that we are happy about because we don’t want our video to the meet the typical, regular expectations.
With regards to intertextuality (“Music Video as incorporating, raiding and reconstructing” J.Stewart), I believe that the video meets it extremely well because the text makes constant referrals to the Disney Film, ‘Read It and Weep’. It is not unusual for music videos to draw on cinema, as it enables the viewer to understand the context, whilst promoting film at the same time. In our music video, I feel that it may prove difficult to portray a great deal of intertextuality to the viewer because of how unique and experimental we aim for it to be.
The use of voyeurism within the video is quite extensive with the lead telling a story, whilst the shot focuses on the lives of others – without them knowing.
I believe that this is a narrative text due to the plot of the video and how the lead singer is constantly expressing the story, usually from a medium, close-up shot throughout. The video is showing the life of a teenage girl in a high school and her feelings towards cliques and labels – how do I know this? Through the great production and clear structure of the video, although I find the simplicity in the text quite unappealing, therefore in our music video we will be playing around with the genre, making it a lot more experimental, only touching upon the conventions, rather than thoroughly abiding by them.
After analysing this particular moving image text, I feel that the video is more Pop, rather than Indie, which I what my group is ultimately aiming for. It is a simple video and an easy-watch for the viewer, although this isn’t what we are hoping to achieve.
By Lauren Widdop
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