Thank U Next - Ariana Grande
The video Thank u next by Ariana Grande tries to immitate several movies . such as Mean Girls , Legally Blonde and 13 going on 30. In all of these short frames Ariana is costumed as the main character of the movie they immitate and she lip syncs to the song.
The first frame is famous youtuber Coleen Ballinger costumed as a character from meangirls saying how she is obsessed with Ariana's Character. This continues for a few more close up shots with people who say how Ariana is amazing and what amazing juicy gossip they have heard about her. This is in very close correlation with the actual movie "Mean Girls"
This part of the music video is used as an introduction and it has lots of meaning because it helps the audience understans that Ariana also has a bitchy side. The other movie immitations show her vulnerable and smart. During the whole music video all the characters are portrayed by celebrities who are friends of Ariana. Such as Troye Sivan and Liz Gillies.
The next setting is located in her room when she sings about her exes and how every single one of them has helped her in a certain way. When she sings Malcolm's name she looks up at the sky because he commited suicide last year and Ariana has suffered a great deal because of this. This is all shown trough a shot which includes her whole body lying in the bed , the mise en scene is very much immitating the actual movie and it is very oppulent for a young girl's bedroom. Her character is actually very oppulent in the movie "Mean Girls". The next shot shows her walking sassilly on the school corridor with her firends while the other students look at them with admiration. This represnts the movie really well and shows that they were the popular clique in highschool and that Ariana has somehow moved on from her exes and now she is thriving. This is shown trough a dolly camera moevement and a mid shot.
Then there is the iconic christmas dance scene , where Ari and he friends are dressed as miss CLaus and they are dancin sexy on the stage while their mom "Kris Jenner" is encouragin them. The whole video is a parody and everything is exagerated in order to make it funny.
The next part of the video is the "vulnerable " side of Ariana from when she was a child actor in Victorious. The scene shows her walking trough the house in pijammas and brushing her teeth in the bathroom with her brother. He is portrayed by the actual actor who played him in the show. Then there is a shot of the cheerleder team dancing , this shot and concept is made after the movie "bring it on" which is based on cheerleading life and thei competitivity.
The main idea of the music video is imitating several teenage chick flicks and aplying then as if Ariana Grande and her frirends were the actors. The song is about her moving on from hurtful exes and being thankful of the lessons she learned from them. She enumerates her exes names and states everything good about them but then as a sign of being a independent woman she says "thank u next" which means she is ready to meet the man that will stick by her for the rest of her life.
The conventions applied in this video are the following : lots and lots of lip syincing , which helps the audience link the meaning of the video easier with the words and meaning of the song. The video is an narrative and interpretative one , this means that the visual has no direct link with the audio and leaves the audience with room for interpretation. There are several narratives as i said before but all of them lead to the same conclusion, a woman grows up.
The link to the music video:
I chose this video because it represents perfectly postmodernism. I am saying this beacause it has lots of elements that don't belong toghether but somehow are made to work together. For example the pregnant woman that cheerleads or teenagers doing teenager stereotypical things. I really love how they managed to put all the classical teenager movies together to represent the ultimate teenage video. Also the video has a lot of effort put into it,whch is a new-age trend. Sometimes more effort is put into the video than the song.
This video is an example for me because it is very well done and has a crazy amount of elements and shots and the mise-en scene is impresive.
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