Lady GaGa

Lady Gaga – Telephone

 

 

Lady GaGa video ‘Telephone’ is postmodernism due to the use of cultural flattening throughout the use of provocative dancing, minimal clothing and swearing.  Moreover, the music video, post modernism is made to be clear that they have used the Goodwin’s Theory as the audience see the video is lacking consistency revealing the song lyrics has nothing to do with the video which a modern postmodern component.

 

Lady GaGa video seems to always have an element of being cinematic with the uses of postmodern element of pastiche, which means she is has imitated elements of cinema with the screen title and also at the end of the music video where there are the credits running at the end. However, these defy traditional conventions of a film as they run in the opposite direction to what would be expected.

 

The narrative of the music video, with the ideology of their being a grand narrative, this is evident with the lack of a strong message being presented in this music video, which talks about not being able to get any reception on the telephone as she is in a club, but the video shows Lady GaGa being in prison and Beyoncé coming to help her and bail her out.

 

Furthermore, another element of the music video being postmodernism because throughout the music video they use the cultural flattening through the use of provocative dancing, minimal clothing and swearing as the director attempts to reduce the stigma around this meaning that the culture around these identities and symbols are weakened and degraded.

 

After the guards bring Lady GaGa to the prison and takes her to a cell, they take off her clothes and one of them say “I told you she didn’t have a ****” which represents the intertextuality references to the rumours that have been displayed across the media about her having a penis.  In my opinion I believe that they have used these indirect mention in videos, it’s not just Lady GaGa.

 

By using the Goodwin’s theory and looking at the narrative and imagery in this video, the audience will see that the video is fairly disjunctive meaning that the song has nothing to do with the video which is seen as a particularly postmodernism division of the song.

 

In this music video there is a lot of product placement and consumerism in which cinematography is used to highlight certain aspects of the music video. For example in the prison, when Lady GaGa she seems to get given a phone by one of the other inmates which is seen through the use of lingering close up of the phone which is served by the virgin mobile, which is a product placement.

 

The relationship between the visuals and the lyrics’, when the lyric “I’m not takin’ no calls cuz I’ll be dancing” meanwhile Beyoncé is actually dancing whilst singing along which helps illustrates the lyrics. The choreography and pace of the music are carefully not remarkably in sync. Nevertheless, the music videos never seem to link the lyrics to the music video.

 

There is a medium shot of Lady GaGa entering a female prison, accompanied by two butch- looking women, as she appears to be ready to serve her time for supposed “crimes” which were committed in the previous video Paparazzi. Furthermore, the stripping of Lady GaGa is to reflect the strip of her persona, making her feel vulnerable (naked). Her Helplessness behind bars is a statement about the trappings of fame. This type of frame continues through the video of Paparazzi. Further on, we get a medium shot of Lady GaGa exploring her sexuality which promotes her decision on the how of the Pussy Wagon. The smoking glasses are there to cloud her vision of reality, which allows her to base her feelings on senses alone.  When they are dancing in the music video they have placed the camera as a medium shot, it illustrates a celebration of a new America – an American which doesn’t discriminate against the genders and the sexual orientation.

 

There is an intertextual reference to the “Pussy Wagon” which is used in the Kill Bill, this also reference to the sexuality in the music video but also reference to the truck driven by the Bride in Tarantions Kill Bill Film. Lady Gaga outfit then shares familiarity with the outfit worn by the nurse in 'Kill Bill', even going so far as to have her hair covering one eye, similar to the nurse's eye patch in the film. There is also a reference to Lady Gaga previous   us video for the single 'Paparazzi', with Beyoncé wearing the same Mickey Mouse style glasses worn by Gaga previously.

 

Nevertheless, Lady Gaga also makes a reference to the stereotypical image of the ‘perfect housewife’. This is an image that was portrayed heavily in the 1950’s pop culture.

Lady Gaga also, has intertextual referencing towards Beyoncé as ‘Honey Boo’ before they begin to poison these in the diner, Honey Bee is the nickname given to one of the two robbers in the famous diner scene in Pulp Fiction.