Where Are U Now Skrillex and Diplo with Justin Bieber
The first significant element of the music video for this song is the colourful, upbeat visuals which accompany the equally upbeat dance-genre music. The video is a stop-motion compilation of illustrations created by people. The illustrations are created over series of pictures of Justin Bieber in stills as he is dancing and singing. Originally, there would have just been a video of him in a room performing all these actions. Then, these were broken down frame-by-frame and the public were invited to draw on each frame - as is shown during the music video.
The illustrations in the video are just colourful pieces of artwork at first glance. As the stop-motion sequence is such a fast-paced device to use, the audience cannot make out the writing or drawings very easily. As a result of this, the bright colours flashing fast reflect the song and conform to the dance genre of the song. It is an upbeat, fast song and so the visuals are certainly illustrative of the song. The actual drawings act as semiotics for Justin Bieber. Most of them present him in a positive light and support his reinvention as an artist. Featuring in this song by Skrillex helps with his 'comeback', and the creators of the drawings in the video support him.
Dyer's theory of 'star quality' values are present in the video. Similar to the drawings helping with Bieber's meta-narrative, his youthfulness and talent is shown through his performance amidst all the illustrations.
The construction of his 'star image' - being a famous singer - is reinforced because he is shown on screen when lyrics are sung. This connotes that he is the main artist despite him only featuring in the song.
The two paradoxes that Dyer theorises about in music videos are present in this video too. Firstly, Bieber is presented as normal because he is dressed like others in society. However, he is extraordinary because he is famous. This is connoted through the volume of people providing illustrations and the nature of the messages; people are aware of his star image.
Secondly, Bieber is close yet far from the consumer in the video. He is close to others because it is as if they are drawing on him and contributing to his performance in the video. Yet, he is far from them as it is merely an image and he is portrayed alone in the video.
Barthes' narrative codes can be applied to the music video. The semic code can be applied because the audience has to pause the video at certain points to understand the illustrations on-screen and then ideologies stemming from these have to be looked into.
The action code applies to the illustrations too because these drive the narrative, and construct the star image of Bieber.
Finally, the cultural code can be applied to the illustrations too because there are a lot of drawings that only mean something to those from certain cultures, such as famous icons.
In conclusion, this music video portrays Justin Bieber in a youthful, positive way and it certainly helps him to reinvent himself as an artist. As his name is on the album cover for the song by Skrillex and Diplo, his star image is also being sold to a larger audience.
DH
What Do You Mean? Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber’s video `What do you mean` has an interesting genre combination, the majority of it is in a cinematic style as evidenced by the large titles at the beginning, with deliberately stereotypical font and dramatic sound effects, which is clear movie iconography. As well as this, the serious emotions and dialogue at the beginning are fairly generic, with use of pathetic fallacy of the rain, to establish a dark tone. Later on however this is completely flipped as after the dramatic conclusion to the story, during which no music is played to give emphasis, the set changes to a skate park. The video then becomes more performance based with a large amount of people dancing and celebrating, with the artist singing throughout. This is a deliberately upbeat ending, in order to negate the more serious and darker beginning and therefore show the lighter side of the artist.
Apart from this sudden juxtaposition, most of Goodwin's overall genre
conventions are there, with the overall focus and prevalence on the artist.
This means the viewer is positioned with Bieber rather than a character,
allowing them to build up an impression of him. Another key aspect is the voyeuristic and fetishistic nature of the bedroom scene with the
sexualisation of the woman and the artist; these contribute to his
meta-narrative as an attractive person as well as giving the video sex appeal. Another famous theorist is Derrida who's binary oppositions can be seen in this video, the binary opposition is created between the Bieber
and the woman in this film. He is shown to be confident and prepared,
organising for him to have the lighter as well as convincing the woman to trust
him; he comforts her and tries to fight the two men who grab him. In contrast
the woman is presented more negatively, the man not being able to understand
her and her lack of decision making is the main plot of the song, as well as this,
while she tries to fight her single kidnapper off, she does so very
ineffectually and relies greatly on the male, further reinforcing the artists dominant
role.
The album cover is of a slightly different tone since the whole
image is very simple consisting of just a black and white image of the artist
on a white background. The artist is also wearing casual clothes but is still
well groomed and the album name is written on a white card, with the artist
name in a handwritten style font above. Overall this connotes a simplicity to
the artist, and therefore implies a `down to earth` attitude in order to combat
his status in recent media, and celebrity status. In using just the bare
minimum of content, with just the artist image and titles, as well as the white
colour scheme the piece implies a fresh start for the singer, clearly linking
him more fully to the music and making this appear to be his main concern. This
allows future pieces, and subsidiary content to build up a new image.
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