Lady Gaga Telephone

Lady Gaga has been in the music industry now for 3 years, excelling from night clubs and small events to sold out tours, nationwide. On her way up to the top of the top she has changed the music industry forever and will be recognised forever on for her music video's out rating any existing video's and fascinating fashions and costumes. Currently just nearing the end of her 4th worldwide tour, her ability to change the standards of music videos in the 21st century has exceeded any expectations. 

Telephone was one of the biggest music videos of 2010, at over 9 minutes long she morphed narrative and music to create a short movie for her audience. An idea that has already been established within the industry by rock music legend, Michael Jackson. 

In this video, there are numerous codes and conventions that can be linked or related to other music videos. Like in music videos ‘Thriller’ & ‘When September ends’ which are videos that I have previously analyzed there is a narrative in this video which relates to the song to the lyrics which creates something for the audience to react too.

Like in Thriller, Lady Gaga's video opens with an establishing shot, however to differentiate the videos the director has chosen the establishing shot to be a montage of shots following the 30-degree rule. Which is seen frequently within the videos of other artists. Telephone and Thriller share the same conventions of danger within the opening shots of their video's recognising stereotypes of danger and portraying them in a way to make the audience aware that they are watching not only a music video but also a short film.

The opening sequence also creates a relationship between those involved in the song. In ‘Thriller’ the narrative opens with a conversation between a young couple on a date, this kind of opening establishes the relationship between the characters with the aid of their body language, costume and the location chosen. Whereas in Telephone Lady Gaga’s feature in the narrative is her as a provocative protagonist. This character has been largely influenced by costume with her minimal clothing (fishnets, leather & tattoos) approach to sexual references, which will create an erotic image for the audience, however later on in the film Gaga has recognised the inappropriateness by wearing 'censored' tape, which implies that she is aware of the problems that her costume choice may bring to criticisers.  

Lady Gaga has chosen to emphasise product placement by using a cell that is sponsored by Virgin media, she may have chosen to do this to show that she is aware of the extent to which the  role and importance branded names have within society today. Gaga also uses intersexuality, which is an immediate reference to another media text. Gaga has done this using the ‘Pussy Wagon’ which appears in Kill Bill. This method of product placement keeps the interest of the audience.

Like in Thriller lady gaga emphasizes the diegetic noises that are involved in the narrative, Gaga has also used graphic match’s  to ensure that the audience is reminded that they are watching a video. Another technique Gaga had incorporated into her film is the extreme use of close up’s and low angle shots. By doing this she achieves several things;

1)  Low angle shots give prestige to the artist creating a procreation relationship between the audience, performer and stage, which gives off the feeling that they are watching them live.

2)   Close up’s are  continuous way to give the artist importance within the music video.

Something that both Thriller and Telephone have created is a narrative, a music video and a combination between the two using the artist as one role featuring in several aspects. In telephone Gaga & Beyoncé are used as both characters within the narrative and also the artist. It becomes totally apparent that the short film is actually a music video when the artist become actively involved in the narrative and song at the same time,  which would be when the artists suddenly perform their songs,  this is a code of music video’s it is something that does not have to be in the music video but many video’s use this method. By having non diegetic music throughout the video the convention adds to the cinematic vibe of the video, which adds realism.

Overall this video holds a very very strong narrative as well as music video, Gaga has been successful in creating a music video/ short film which has changed the way the music industry approaches music videos.