na Kramer - Whiskey
In this video there is a lot of handheld camera. This is a great effect because it enhances the country genre of the video and makes it feel more home made. Country music videos are more rustic and raw than other music video which shows through the use of this handheld camera. The shakiness of the handheld camera makes the scenes where Jana is laid on the sofa more comforting and welcoming. The handheld camera also makes you feel more sorry for Jana in the scenes when she is in the woods and the end when her boyfriend gets taken away. This is because the handheld camera make the video look more real, like a normal person is filming it which adds a sense of empathy to the viewer. The song is about relying on your gut instinct about someone, this shows when she sings "should have just called it like I saw it" and the men start fighting. This shows that she knows that he is bad news for her and she knows that she should have just left him there and then. This scene is also enhanced by the handheld camera because it makes it looks more violent and intense. The song and the video aren't in chronological order. The song is Jana singing about her experience with the man and the video is about what she actually went through with the man. This is a good effect because it makes the audience think more about what is going on in the video because they ask themselves why she is still with him when she's singing about leaving him.
The ideology of Jana Kramer's music video is that everyone makes mistakes and sometimes you have to make them mistakes in order to learn from them. She aims to show that most of the time you should just go with your gut instinct and do whatever comes naturally, because if you don't, it can lead to somewhere you don't want to be. The message in this music video is mostly shown through the mise en scene, through things such as props and character placement. The whiskey is a key thing in the music video. It is a metaphor for how addicting something can be and how things such as alcohol can make you do stupid things and in turn make mistakes.
Whiskey is the second single from Jana's debut album which was released in 2012. It was produced by Scott Hendricks. Jana is on the label Elektra which is a part of Warner Music Group. Since being released it has has over 4.7 millions views on YouTube as of November 2014.
Jana's audience is mainly teenagers. I think this song is aimed at that age group because these are the people that are going through relationships such as this one, having the problems, making the mistakes and then learning from them afterwards. Teenagers are more likely to be influenced by this song because it shows that you need to stay clear to people you don't feel are going to be good for you, because you will end up hurt. I think it is mainly aimed at girls because girls are more likely to have the crushes on boys where they get so caught up in having a 'bad boy' they don't think ahead to how they will feel when that 'bad boy' leaves. I also think this because girls are the ones who are more likely to regret their actions afterwards, more tend to be more carefree whereas girls would think about it and regret it.
This video represents how people make mistakes. The lyrics of the song are Jana telling the story of how she should have gone with her gut instinct and left that man as soon as she could. This is a good message because most people don't like admitting that they have made a mistake. She shows it really well through the different uses of narrative flashbacks and also performance. The flashbacks inform the audience of why she has chosen these lyrics and they back up her opinions.
Carrie Underwood - Blown Away
There's a lot of slow motion used in this video especially in the beginning. This is to create suspense before the storm hits, the slow motion draws tension and makes the audience wonder what will happen. When the song first starts the juxtaposition of the slow motion of Carrie and the sped up shot of the clouds passing by shows how fast the storm is coming and that she is doing nothing about it, this extenuates the fact that she wants the storm to come and destroy her home because of the resentment she has for her father. This is also shown by the lyrics "the weatherman called for a twister, she prayed blown it down". The colours that are used in the extreme long shot of the house and the twister show how vulnerable the house and she is. The contrast of the dark sky and tornado with the bright yellow and red of the house signify that the house is the only hope for her, it's the only safe place and she needs to get to it. The extreme long shot also shows how vulnerable she is because you can see all of the surrounding areas and you can see that theirs is the only house that is there. This could create sympathy for Carrie as she tries to run toward safety. The shot where you can see Carrie shaking her dad to try and wake him up also shows glass shattering in the background. This is a subtle but effective thing to use because it shows exactly how intense the storm is, and how much danger they are in. The use of flashbacks is very effective in this video. They create more of an explanation for Carrie's rage so that the audience understand her story better. The flashbacks are helpful for the shot of her dad passed out on the sofa cuddling a bottle of whiskey with the lyrics "some people call it taking shelter, she called it sweet revenge" over it. Without the flashbacks showing the audience exactly what she had been through with her father, this shot would have looked a lot more sinister.
Blown Away is the second single released from Carrie's 4th studio album of the same name. Since being released in July 2012 it has seen more than 21.8 million hits on YouTube and has gone 2x Platinum. The producer of the single is Mark Bright and was released by the label Arista Nashville who Carrie is signed on to. Arista Nashville is part of the Sony Music Group.
This music video stands for the right to stand up for yourself. This is shown through the narrative. She locks herself in the cellar and leaves her father, this is her standing up for herself. Also the lyrics used when she leaves her father in the house are "I call it sweet revenge". This shows that she is taking a stand and saving herself like she should have done years ago.
The target audience of this music video is mostly teenage girls. These are the people who feel they get pushed around by their parents, maybe not to the extent that Carrie did in this video but they can feel like they relate to this to some extent. They will also aspire to how Carrie looks in this video, because of how beautiful she is and how strong willed she is she will motivate young girls to follow in her footsteps and she will become a role model for them. "til there's nothing left of yesterday" will also give some girls something to relate to as they are the type of people who would want to juat forget everything that has happened and start afresh. Because of mood wings and teenage years young girls are also more likely the ones who would wish a twister to tear through their house because at this age they are very dramatic and don't know how to deal with their problems in a grown up way.
This music video represents how girls should stand up for themselves and not bottle in their anger. This is a prime example of what happens when you bottle all your anger in, you do irrational things like leave your father to get hit by a twister. The sinister tone in Carrie's voice throughout the song shows her anger towards her father, especially throughout the bridge of the song. The lyrics "every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away" also show her anger because it shows she doesn't have very nice memories of her father and she just wants to get rid of them. All of these points show how she feels like she she should have stood up for herself when she was younger.
