Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Fancy - Iggy Azalea, (Textual Analysis)

The music video for Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy’ is based upon the international hit film ‘Clueless’. Clueless is a famous American chick-flick released in 1995. The music video recreates the visuals from the school, including the 90s outfits and the school setting. The aim of this video is to create nostalgia with fans of the film, who would probably be in the age group of 13-25 which would be the main target audience for the film.


One way they recreate the film is through the typography. The name of the artist and song is displayed using the same logo that was used in the film. This font and colour scheme is instantly recognisable by fans of the film, therefore they will be interested in the music video within the first 10 seconds. 
We then have another clue that the video is a spin on the 90s movie when Iggy uses a system to choose her outfit for her. In the film she uses a computer based system whereas in the music video the software is on a tablet. This shows a binary opposite between modern day technology and technology back then. I like how they have adapted the film to suit our modern day society.


The next location confirms the alikeness between the music video and film. They are both set in similar looking classrooms, with the same 3 characters at the front of the class. This approves that the music video is a take on the Clueless film, which ensures that fans will watch to the end. The use of costume is very important within this video as it has to match the original very well so that it is authentic for the audience.


For the second chorus and then throughout we see the location of the house party that is it the film. Red and pink lighting has been used to emphasis the chick-flick feel which is aimed at mostly females. The lighting is quite low key creating the atmosphere of a party. The look of the party in the music video looks similar to the one in the film, however in the film the house is decorated with Christmas decorations. This does not feature in the video, as they would not have wanted to limit the target audience or have create an effect when listeners only listen to the song in the festive season. The song was also released in March, so having Christmas elements to the video would not make sense.


Another part copied is from the scene when main lead Cher’s best friend Dionne gets lost in her car and ends up on the freeway. This is a memorable funny part of the film, so by adding it into the music video will create excitement, laughter and further nostalgia within the audience. The red car remains the same it is just a newer model and the basis of the costumes are similar. The editing technique is also alike, as we can see from the following close up.



I believe by relating the Fancy video to the popular film Clueless it gives the record label a huge brand that they can sell for the video. Music videos are now shared and released by social media, so if for example a tweet with a 6 second Vine was sent showcasing a sneak preview of the Fancy video, it would catch peoples eyes as they will recognise the theme of the video and then create interest with people telling their friends. As the film is such a hit, a music video based on it has a higher chance of viewers wanting to watch it. Below are a few more comparisons I found when watching the video! As a teenage girl, who loves chick-flicks, especially Clueless, I loved the idea of this video and watched it repeatedly without getting bored and it also created conversation within my friends as we all loved the film and was excited about the video. This strategy to sell the product has obviously worked as the Youtube hits for the video are currently at over 762,906,100.


No comments:

Post a Comment