Music Video Analysis

Melanie Martinez 'Dollhouse'

 

Intro- what the artist is like, genre and what characteristics of the genre does this video show. 

• Melanie Martinez falls under more than one category when it comes to genre, due to her unique ever changing style. The genres include: electropop, pop, indie pop and alternative rock.
• The up and coming singer has recently released an album called 'Cry Baby' that contains haunting and emotional songs that are impossible not to sing along to.
• Her videos are all purely her own vision and are characteristic of her genre as they are always brightly coloured and fun.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals (how are the lyrics expressed by the visuals). 

• The relationship between the music and visuals in this video is very literal throughout. For instance she sings, 'your son is smoking cannabis' and there is a shot of just that. Another example is when she sings 'she pulls out a flask' and the mother character lifts a flask to her face. I really like how the lyrics and visuals match throughout because I think that a music videos main purpose is to emphasise and elevate the lyrics of the song. The relationship means that the song is brought to life as you can picture the movements in the video when you just hear the song. This type of video is typical for Melanie and has become her trademark video style.

Relationship between music and visuals (beats) (change pace with the music).

• There is a lot of evidence for the music and the visuals having a relationship in this video. This is seen when there is a ticking noise from a clock and she moves stiffly without moving her limbs in time of the ticking to create a doll like appearance. This works really well with her video and is a perfect way to create a relationship between the music and visuals. It happens at the start of the video and the end, and is used to emphasise not only the lyrics but the actual tune, making the sharp movements interesting and engaging.

Close ups of the artist and star image motifs.

• The close ups in this video are important to discuss because Melanie has a very unique and recognisable star image. She has a gap in her front teeth which has become what she is known for and so the close ups of her singing are necessary for keeping up her iconography. Her style is also part of her iconic appearance as she tends to wear doll clothes and jewellery with doll parts on it. All of this works to create her star image and is emphasised by the close ups in her music videos.

Voyeurism

• I don't think that there is any clear voyeurism in this video, especially in terms of the sexualisation of female bodies.

Intertextuality references (other music videos or TV and film) 

• I wouldn't say that there are any intertextuality references in this song or music video.

Performance, narrative or concept based?

• I would strongly argue that this video is narrative based as it starts with the girl playing with the dollhouse, then moves to the story of the doll within the dollhouse and the finally finishes with the girl looking in the dollhouse. Even though the characters in this video are dolls, the narrative allows the audience to relate and empathise with them. I think that this was Melanie's aim as she stereotypes the typical dysfunctional family but adds macabre and sinister undertones. Some may also argue that the video is also slightly concept based because it revolves around one particular thing (the dollhouse).