A Million Reasons Lady Gaga Social and Cultural

A Million Reasons –Lady Gaga Social and Cultural contexts (plus historical for AS)

LQ: In what ways is the video for A Million Reasons significant ? Lesson Aims • To understand the social and cultural contexts behind the video • To see whether the ideas of Goodwin and Vernallis could be applied in analysis • To consider different representations in the video • To write up your notes onto the research blog

The video Let’s start by watching the music video at https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=en 2 D_5 Tz. XCA (you will watch it again) Any comments ? What did you think the narrative of the video was ? What genre of music would you say it was ? Why are there references to religion – “Bow down to pray, ’Lord show me the way”, the rosary/cross that is part of the present given to Lady Gaga by her fans

Social and Cultural Contexts Who is Lady Gaga ? Use the internet to find out something about: - Her career – how successful is she and where does this song fit in ? - Her image(s) - Her relationship with her fans Music video Now find out some background to the video. The 2 online articles below are helpful but don’t be afraid to use more articles/websites. Digital spy http: //www. digitalspy. com/music/news/a 816942/lady-gaga-million-reasons-music-video-sequel -perfect-illusion/ Wikipedia page on music video https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Million_Reasons (use for an intertextual reference)

How typical is A Million Reasons of music video ? We will watch the video again and in pairs take notes – 1 looking at the ideas of Goodwin and 1 looking at the ideas of Vernallis 1. Goodwin Relationship between visuals and lyrics 2. Editing to beat 3. Typical Lady Gaga imagery (Brand) 4. Multiple Close ups 5. Active women ? 6. Intertextual references 7. Narrator and Performer 1. Vernallis Narrative – video is a visual response to narrative that may be disjointed and contain repetition 2. Editing – edits draw attention to themselves, jump cuts, base track, rhythmic changes in pace of editing 3. Camera – most common are either at front or side with a low angle to one side. Camera often moves.

Representation in A Million Reasons 1. Describe 3 ways that Lady Gaga is represented in the music video and use specific references from the music video to back this up. Some of your notes from Goodwin might help here. Is there more than 1 image and/or more than 1 music genre being referenced in the video ? Thinking about Laura Mulvey, can you think of any part of the video that might be considered as for The Male Gaze ? 2. Do you think there any other significant representations other than genre ? 3. What SIMILARITIES are there between this video and Billie Jean – not just in terms of representation but also think about media language/music video conventions and how music video is viewed/used now and how it was in 1983.

Cultural, Social and Historical contexts Cultural - Mixing of genres - Music video narratives carrying on from 1 video to another - Intertextual references Social - Woman singer in control (or is she ? ) - Popularity of Lady Gaga, how many hits does video have ? Why is she so popular ? Historical - Unlike Michael Jackson, doesn’t rely on/need MTV - Today whole different ways of communicating – social media, websites, youtube (does she need a record company ? )

The Blog Write up your thoughts and notes onto your blog