Music Video Analysis - 'Tori Kelly - Paper Hearts'

Through the four micro-elements women are represented in a stereotypical way which conforms to the hegemonic view of women being emotional and weak.

Mise-en-scene (props) represents women as being sentimental and emotional. An example of this within the music video the female protagonist is denoted taking pictures with a Polaroid camera of her and her boyfriend’s hands as memories, which connotes that she wants to remember all of the little things suggesting that she is very sentimental. This therefore conforms to the typical stereotype of women as they are seen as emotional and caring compared to men. This fits in with Blummer and Katz theory of personal relationship, as there will be girls that could relate to the female protagonist within this music video, which would represent Tori Kelly as passionate and caring. These props also connotes that there may be problems within their relationship as it seems as though she is reminiscing upon the times and memories they had.

Sound is also used within the music video to set the scene and to create the mood of the music video. This is evident at the start of the music video where it starts of very soft and slow before Tori Kelly starts singing as it is used to set the scene and to prepare/make the audience aware of what type of music video it will be. The way the song starts creates a very cute and romantic feeling which will mainly attract the female audience. The slow music at the beginning conforms to the typical pop video as it about a romance and you would expect the music to start slowly. The song slowly gets faster as the video progresses however it is still quite slow paced. This suggests that the target audience of this video is mainly female based. Also this connotes that the production company knew that to target the female audience they would need a music video primarily based around relationships. This fits in with Blummer and Katz theory of Personal Relationships as many females watching this music video will be able to relate to the relationship with all of the cute shots of them together. This also fits in with the diversion part of Blummer and Katz theory as this any also give the female audience a chance to get away from any problems within their lives to enjoy the video and romance within it.

Camera shots within this music video make direct links between the lyrics and visuals. An example of this is when the lyrics ‘good times’ come there is a shot of a Polaroid whilst someone writes the words ‘good times’ onto it. This denotes a relationship between the lyrics and visuals which fits in with Andrew Goodwin’s theory as it makes the video more appealing to the audience as they are able to enjoy the video more and will be able to keep up with whatever story is being told without getting bored or confused. There are also a close up of the females protagonists face to connote that she is upset as she is denoted with a tear rolling down her face in an extreme close up of half of her face. This connotes that she is very emotional and mentally drained due to problems within her life. This fits in with Todorov’s theory of equilibrium as the video starts of with a cute couple scene which is the calm start to the music video that you would expect to see with a romance and then throughout there are shots of the female protagonist with tears to connote that the equilibrium has been disrupted. This conforms to the typical girly music video as it is expected to have a typical breakup or upset scene within it so that its not too boring or cheesy.

Editing is evident within this music video to denote all of the cute memories the female protagonist has. An example of this is throughout the video there is a montage of different shots of different days where the couple is spending time together. This is to connote that there are a lot of memories that they share and that female protagonist is reminiscing on the times they had as though they have broken up. Within this music video Tori Kelly is represented as weak which is the hegemonic view of women as they are seem to need a male to look after them and within this video there are more than one jump cut from a memory the couple shared to a shot of her crying. This fits in with Barthes theory of enigma code as it will leave the audience wondering why they broke up or what has actually happened for her to be crying.

Overall, the four micro-elements are used to conform with the codes and conventions of a pop video and to also conform to the stereotype of women. As throughout the video women are seen as weak and dependent on relationships which is hegemonic view anyway.