Analysis of a music video. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call me maybe.

Jessica Love

Industry Information.

Carly Rae Jepson is the singer/ songwriters real name. She was born in Canada and in 2007 she came 3rd in the fifth series of Canadian Idol. After the competition she was signed by a recording label under Fontana and MapleMusic due to her talent being unable to bypass as even though she did not win the show. Three years after her signing and tours she released her first single called Call me maybe it reached number one not only in Canada, but Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom too. Carly sings pop and pop rock genre of music at the age of 26 and has released many other records, one being featured with Owl City a famous male singer this single is called Good times. She has also won 6 awards and awaiting the results of the MTV video music awards of best newcomer for Call me maybe.

Narrative Aspects within the video.storyline to this music video is that Carly is trying to impress the local neighbour, he is The main

presented as a typical hot American boy of which all the ladies would want to run after, showing his 6pack within the video to impress female audiences with his body. Carly however is seen to have little chance with this male actor as him shows little interest to her; Carly therefore tries harder to impress him, of which is shown in a comical way towards the audience. Furthermore at the end of the video it shows the male figure giving his number to one of Carlys male band members saying call me maybe twisting the whole story and making the video seem comical and making sense to why the man was ignoring Carlys hints.

Antagonist

Protagonist.

Analysing narrative in music video. Within this music video the Protagonist is Carly Rae Jepsen (the singer herself) as the leading role. The Antagonist on the other hand is the male figure who Carly is trying to catch attention off. This music video is a convergent narrative storyline when we see two storylines of both of the characters and we think that by the end of the video they will come together, however there is an iconic twist at the end finding out that her crush is actually gay. This music video creates a proairetic/ action code this is the narrative aspect which drives anticipation to resolve the storyline of which ends in a way that the

Genre Conventions
The genre is dance pop/ teen pop, this is quite clearly shown through the music and performance side of the video, by including up beat tempo with an easy orientation of dance moves. The quote Differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered to this made it easier to standardise and stabilise production. Pop music videos use the genre conventions of music videos to help target their audience by showing Carly forced outside to wash her car in short shorts and wedged heels. This would then attract male attention and male audiences to watch the video, this action is called the male gaze, enticing males to watch this video due to her looking sexy. When Carly is shown singing/ practising in her garage this meets the stereotype of teen pop because Carly is represented as a teenager herself, of which many theatrical teens could relate to this video as they too sing/ perform in the garage as this is the only spare space they have to perform and cannot afford a recording room as such.

Representations within the music video. Within this music video the female singer, Carly Rae herself is

presented as stupid in a comical way. After Carly falls off the car when trying to impress the local neighbour this gives the audience the impression that she is trying to hard to connect with this guy and instead is making her to seem a fool for trying. This is shown throughout the music clip many times, another example of females being represented as a fool is the fact that the whole song Carly is chasing after the male figure and he turns out to be gay, making Carly seem idiotic and a fool for chasing after someone she cannot have. The representation shown for the male figure is that they are the stronger and more dominant sex as Carly is chasing after him and he does not seem bothered at all, it presents Carly to be begging on her knees and craving his attention whereas the guy is used to this female attention as is not surprised by it. This image is shown and Carly is looking up at her lover, gazing into his eyes whereas he is looking far into the distance, by looking up at him, it makes Carly appear to be the weaker sex compared to him.

Intertextual References
This image has been taken off the well known film Cool hand Luke it creates an iconographic scene that women are presented as sexual objects within the media. Similar to this Laura Mulvey believes that the male gaze does exist and women are presented this way to entertain men and keep them attracted to what they are watching. Carly feels that she is showing off her sexy side which is ironic because at the end of the music video we find out that her crush who she is trying to impress, is actually gay.

This image however is an intertexual references occurs throughout the dream sequences when Carly faints after falling off the car, imagining herself with the male admirer. As you can tell between these two images Call me maybe has linked this image to Shakespeare's famous play Romeo and Juliet by giving Carly and the boy old fashioned clothing, in long dresses this can be linked to the 1590s play due to the clothing and hairstyles of the male also having long brown hair. The writing in the background of the couple also links between the two images stating the name of the play/song again making a strong link between the two types of references.

Lyrics and Visuals.

This shows that Carly has been waiting for a boy like him all her life, as she has dreamt about him and thought about him before hand. She missed not having him in her life and now she has met him she wants him even more. Getting al hot and flustered in the video, fanning herself down with a magazine after getting a

By using the lyrics All the others boys, try to chase me shows that she is trying to make the admiring boy jealous as he should appreciate that she likes him and is turning away all of the other boys who are chasing her, and he should feel honoured that she has picked him over everyone else. She tries to flirt with the boy by acting sexy and washing the car while singing to him, until she falls off the car and makes a fool out of herself.

Music and Visuals

This image occurs when the boy next door looks at Carly, who is busily staring at him, she suddenly realises she has been caught staring so falls to the floor to hide herself from the embarrassment. As her body hits the ground, the beat kicks in and the chorus also starts then. This falling symbolises the beginning beat to the song.

Throughout this part of the music video, the backing beat of the song stops, and the chorus is sung once again, without the beat, this is used to show her dream sequence showing the audience the difference between real life part of the video and this dream sequence of Carly devoting her love to the boy.

Shots of Carly Rae Jepsen.

This is a close up shot of Carly, this puts the audiences attention towards Carlys facial features, her sparkling eyes and her glossy pink lips. This would attract male attention from viewers and they would feel more interaction between the music video and themselves. In this long shot, Carly is shown singing/ practising in her garage this stereotypes teen pop because Carly is represented as a teenager herself, of which many musical teens could relate to this video as they too sing/ perform in the garage as this is the only spare space they have to perform and cannot afford a recording room as such. This shot is a bird eyes view of Carly while she is laying on the floor. It is a mid shot, meaning the zoom is roughly in the middle and showing half of Carlys body. This image occurs after Carlys dream sequence thinking that the next door neighbour is in love with her, and waking up very embarrassed to see the confusion and worried look on his face.

Narrative vs.

Performance.
There is only a small section of the music video of which is performance. This part of the video Carly is in a small band, containing a bass player, lead guitarist and pianist Carly here is wearing a flowing shawl which wraps around her body to keep the cold off her arms. This shows that she is not trying to show her sexual side; showing her innocence instead and the attention is put towards her love to the boy. The performance is still linked to the narrative part of the video, as the neighbour is watching this performance outside the garage, keeping the storyline and performance linked together.

The main storyline to this music video is that Carly is trying to impress the local neighbour, he is presented as a typical hot American boy of which all the ladies would want to run after, showing his 6pack within the video to impress female audiences with his body. Carly however is seen to have little chance with this male actor as him shows little interest to her; Carly therefore tries harder to impress him, of which is shown in a comical way towards the audience. Furthermore at the end of the video it shows the male figure giving his number to one of Carlys male band members saying call me maybe twisting the whole story and making the video seem comical and making sense to why the man was ignoring Carlys hints.

Voyeurism.

Female and male gaze.

The male gaze was theory was made by Laura Mulvey(a Feminist). Here Carly tries to flirt with the boy by acting sexy and washing the car while singing to him, this would suggest that it introduces the male gaze, men wouldnt usually watch teen pop music videos, so by adding this element into the video it is likely to bring in male audiences to watch the video. This would therefore increase the amount of viewers who want to watch this music video. Again this female gaze it exactly the same, enticing another audience type with images they will fanaticise over. Here, we can see the attractive male figure taking his top off and showing off his six pack. This would entice women to watch this music video, just to see the body of the actor.