Friday 10 June 2016

MVid EG3: Spice Girls - Wannabe

WHAT WE DID APPLY: INCLUDING ELEMENTS OF COLOR BY USING COLOR POWDER/DIEGETIC INTRO/OUTRO  

ArtistSpice Girls
Track: Wannabe
Release: 1996
Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/spicegirls/wannabe.html

The song Wannabe by Spice Girls came out in 1994 and was a major hit within the dance pop genre. The music video of the girl power band is a great example to analyse because it was the first girlband and video that marked a historic break because each of these girls had their own individual look and identity.



Boybands had always been individual characters signified through their style of clothing and personality. Whereas in the first videos of girlbands, the girls were non-individuated, meaning that they each wore the same clothing, same look (e.g. hair) and didn't portray their identity in the music video. A good contrasting example to the Spice GirlsWannabe is the song Eternal flame by atomic kitten.




In the video above, the girlband, Atomic Kitten, doesn't show any individual character's or a different look. All three of them are wearing a similar white jumpsuit, have the same length and style of hair and a similar make-up consisting of a bright glittery lip gloss and mascara.

Despite the videos being so different from one another, there is one similarity between them, which is that they both contain features of male gaze (Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory). The glamorous look and amount of skin shown of the Atomic Kitten girls and the fixation of the female body in both videos through the medium close-ups in there, are the features of male gaze theory

Another reason why I decided to comment on girlbands is because Bronwen and I considered to create a minivid of a girlband. Due to this, we wanted to identify the different key features that are in a girlband video.

When comparing the video from the girl power band Little Mix that brought out the pop song Wings from 2012 or their song Hair, which was released in 2016 or the Spice Girl's video, there are a lot of similarities.



First of all, there are bright colours included in both music videos. The girls wear bright clothes, have coloured hair and the background has patterns such as flowers, which makes it even brighter and highlights the girl's faces. The mise-en-scene of the blue, pink, neon yellow and other colors highlight the typical "girlpower" slogan.


Furthermore, the location of an empty airport or hangar is often used in music videos. It is also used for the music video Up in the air by 30 seconds to Mars.
When decorated with a specific trait from that group, such as the British flag, since the members of Little Mix are all from Britain, it already takes your eyes of the hangar, focusing on the singers and dancers.



In case that Bronwen and I, create a music video with a song from a girlpower band, we will be using a lot of colors in terms of mise-en-scene especially putting a focus on colorful costumes.
Furthermore, we indtend to create and choreography, a dance routine , which is one of the 6 features of a music video according to Andrew Goodwin's theory of the specific genre characteristic. I know some dancers from the Conservatoire de Luxembourg, which is the Luxemburgish music conservatorium, that offers classes in dance and singing and that also teaches music. I intend to contact those people, once Bronwen and I have set on a group pitch and our final idea. 

Lastly, Bronwen and I want to go location scouting in a butterfly garden and use colour powder in our music video, that you use for the famous colour runs here in Luxembourg.

2 comments:

  1. This band/videomarked an historic break: boybands had always been individual characters signified through different costume etc, but girlbands had always been non-individuated; these each had very strong individual looks and identities, taking on traditional male territory ('girl power' became their slogan)
    Look for male gaze (post-feminists reject the concept); aspects that might appeal to the core pop audience (tween girls and young teens: consider uses and gratifications theory) and to wider secondary audiences (male, adult); how costume signifies character; editing and link to the track; any direct links to lyrics; how men are represented; (be specific on) use of colour

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  2. Some contrasting girlband student examples to look at:
    Girls Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sROTvb9-szQ&index=7&list=PL7569C6CB6D2CD2B5
    Destiny's Child: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ2ET0p2MtM&list=PL7569C6CB6D2CD2B5&index=5
    Atomic Kitten: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12VHY-pCZWQ&index=2&list=PLzy1pwphEdHShqZvflhkJv8u7WOIRTcvQ

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