Analysis of Music Video

Video - 'Telephone' by Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce

I am analysing 'Telephone,' by Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce. It was directed by Jonas Akerlund, he has directed 'Paparazzi,' by Lady Gaga as well. The music video belongs to the Pop genre. You would expect to see dance routines, visuals that connect with the lyrics and cuts on the beat of the music.

At the beginning of the video, Lady Gaga answers the phone and Beyonce is on the other end. The lyrics 'I have got no service in the club, you see, you see,' contradict the visuals, as Gaga is in a prison (Telephone is the sequel to Paparazzi, where she ended up in a Police station). Most of the visuals contradict the lyrics in this music video. There are occasional moments in the music video where the lyrics are illustrated, such as, 'Tonight I'm not taking no calls, 'cause I'll be dancin',' At this point in the song, Beyonce has a phone sitting next to her on her bed and she is also dancing. There is no reference to a club, or dance floor in the visuals, but they are in the lyrics. This is typical of Lady Gaga, as she rarely has a relationship between lyrics and visuals in her music videos.

The video is cut to the beat, and has been edited into phrases, some of these phrases being in the cafe, and in the kitchen of the cafe. At the beginning of the video, Lady Gaga is on the phone, and as the beat changes she drops the phone on the floor. The shot also changes to the beat at 25 seconds. A few seconds after that she dances and it is edited to beat, 2 different shots are used for this, these being a close up and a long shot. The scene then changes to Lady Gaga in a police tape costume. There is then a sound of what seems to be someone dialing a telephone and the shot changes every time you hear the sound. The music then changes drastically into a harder hitting beat and you see Lady Gaga and Beyonce in a car. This shot is a wide shot but at a medium close up. Every time there is a drum beat in the song, the camera that Lady Gaga is holding flashes. This scene uses fast editing so it goes along with the beat. Fast editing is used throughout the whole video due to the pace of the song. When Lady Gaga's voice changes in the next segment of the song, one shot is played quickly a few times to go along with the music. When the song becomes more fluid and slower the visuals fade in and out of each other. Although the editing is still fast. When 'mechanical,' sounds get used in the song the visuals change but they use an image of a knife and fork to do this. When there are hard hitting bits in the music, Lady Gaga and Beyonce both do a big dance move to fill this part of the music.

Close ups are constantly used in this video to promote the artist. Nearly every other shot is a close up and this is the way the record label want to sell this track. Lady Gaga is famously known for being different and creating videos that test the boundaries. This video relates to Gaga's 'Paparazzi,' video as it is the follow on. At the end of that video we see Gaga at a police station and in the beginning of 'Telephone,' Gaga is in that same prison. There is no change of image apart from Gaga having yellow in her hair.

Gaga is obviously on sexual display as in one part she is only wearing police tape and throughout the video she is seen in lingerie, and skimpy outfits. A camera is used in the video which gives a slight notion of looking but not a lot as you don't see the images.

There is an intertextual reference as the video takes scenes from Thelma and Louise; these scenes are in the cafe and the car driving away at the end.

The video is narrative based as Gaga gets out of jail and carries on killing people, just like she did in 'Paparazzi,'

Overall I think this video is everything Gaga wants to be; extrovert, amazing, different and creative. Her videos inspire people to be who they want to be, and tell people that they can do anything they want to do.