ET music video analysis

This music video is ‘E.T’ by Kanye West which also features Katy Perry, the use of having two artists from different genres of music promotes increased profit. This is because mixing genres allows a broader audience therefore increasing the views of this video in this video the main artist Kanye West is in one seen though shown in many different camera shots, he is shown to be in a space ship (0.32-0.37) which has been used before in music videos such a The Darkness ‘I believe in a thing called love’ portraying that this particular image was image and style scavenged.

Starting with a close up of the artist we get a feeling of continuity as we are straight to viewing the artist, only then zooming out the environment around him, Kanye West is dressed in his usual image (0.38-0.50) which is a convention of the Hip-Hop genre with his shades that he wears in most of his music videos. By retaining this image of him, Kanye West can be classed as a commercial exhibitionist. The rapid camera movement that we are seeing in this scene is emphasising the theme of zero gravity, having a close up of the artist being vertical and then horizontal along with spinning establishes to the audience that the artist is not in a normal setting. The sci-fi theme to the video can be classed as clichéd imagery as explained by the ‘Darkness’ video has been used multiple times.

   

Katy Perry in this video is portrayed as an alien, in her first shot she is dressed as an actual alien while in other shots she is more human looking, the video from (1.20-1.32) you see such a transition from one of her looks to another. The camera shots of the artist are pretty stable ones compared to Kanye West though it does shake a bit to establish the mise en scene of space. A lot more performance is coming from the artist rather than the camera to emphasis the environment (As viewed in the previous clip).  All this eccentric images of her give the impression of image assaults of outré folks. Even in this form Katy Perry is still made to appeal to the young males as being quite beautiful therefore she is adding adolescent male fantasies (3.15-3.28) into the equation. Seeing as it is mainly her voice that anchors the visuals it is clear that Katy Perry is more of an electronic shaman as she shifts between these different views of herself. Although this video has good visuals and vocals the meaning behind it is hard to interpret, if there is one at all, suggesting that this video is surface without substance.