The above video is the music video for Lady Gaga's 2009 song "Paparazzi"
The opening of the music video for Lady Gaga's song "Paparazzi" is set at a very different pace than the later stages of the video and is much calmer, putting it in direct contrast with the more upbeat, fast paced action shown in the rest of the video. This start to the video is used to open the storyline of the video and set up the plot that is shown throughout. One example of this is the use of text in the opening credits of the video. Due to the font that is used the text looks very old fashioned, more like something out of the 1950's or 60's than a font that would be used in 2009. As well as this, the scene for the video is set, showing a large, lavish house with a lot of expensive looking luxuries littering the inside of the house. After this, the early stages of the video are used to show Lady Gaga's power, wealth and how important she is. This is shown in the way that her face is on the 100$ notes that can be seen in the video and how she has large amounts of money and expensive looking jewellery just lying around throughout the house. The camera also focuses on a newspaper headline which states "Lady Gaga reaches the top yet again". This shows that she is an important public figure as she is appearing as the main feature on the front page of a newspaper. As well as this, some parts of the video are used as advertisements for other companies or products. The stand out example of this is the fact that Gaga is wearing rings on her fingers that spell out Dior, at one point even holding these up for the camera, which does a close up which shows her face and the product placement in the same shot. As she fades out away from the camera, Gaga is shown in a Christ like pose similar to that of Jesus on the cross. This could be Gaga attempting to compare herself to him or possibly implying that she is a martyr for the music industry and is trying to get her message heard at any cost.
In the next scene of the video, Gaga is lifted out of a limousine into a wheelchair, showing that she is broken and no longer as powerful as she previously was. Contradicting this though is the purple carpet that she is pushed along, purple being a colour that is often associated with royalty and wealth. At this point she is also wearing a neck brace that is adorned with glitter and is bright red in colour, showing that she is still trying to be glamorous and attempting to stand out even though she is confined to a wheelchair and must wear a protective neck brace due to the injuries that she received when she was pushed off of the balcony of her house by her boyfriend. Slightly later on in the video, Gaga us shown dancing, now seemingly fully healed. In this scene, she is dressed in a white outfit with black accessories flowing out from the sides of the outfit. This mixture of black and white could be being used to contrast the two different sides of Lady Gaga, due to the fact that black is often a colour associated with bad and evil while white is more often associated linked to good. This is an effectively used technique in this scene as it is showing the beginning of her transformation from a good, innocent character in the story to a more questionable, possibly evil character, as is shown later in the music video when Gaga poisons and kills her boyfriend. This is also symbolized with much more subtlety with the black highlighted streak that Gaga now has in her hair, as opposed to the bright pink colour that her hair was dyed in previously. Shortly after this, Gaga is seen in an almost entirely black outfit, now with only a small colouring of white in her hair. This is to show how she is no longer an innocent character and now has bad intentions, and should possibly be seen as a bad or evil character.
In conclusion, the music video to Lady Gaga's song Paparazzi has a variety of messages throughout its duration, hidden behind imagery and storytelling, for people to learn. One such message is the theme of sexism that is fairly evident throughout the video. The main points where this is shown are within the first scene of the video and the final one, combining to link the story together. Near the start of the video, Gaga's character is shown being pushed off of the balcony of her home by her boyfriend, who escapes any form of punishment for his wrongdoing. However, when Gaga gets her revenge on him at the end of the video through the use of poison, she is soon arrested. This can be seen as a social commentary on how women and men are treated differently, and how women are unfairly treated and possibly also discriminated against, maybe being seen as less important than men. There is also a small portion of the video which also shows a theme of racism and shows the discrimination that black people face, with the only black men that are shown in the video being servants for Gaga and helping to carry her when she is confined to a wheelchair. This shows the unfair treatment of black people in everyday life, also shown in the way that this subtle undertone in the video can be easily missed.
In the next scene of the video, Gaga is lifted out of a limousine into a wheelchair, showing that she is broken and no longer as powerful as she previously was. Contradicting this though is the purple carpet that she is pushed along, purple being a colour that is often associated with royalty and wealth. At this point she is also wearing a neck brace that is adorned with glitter and is bright red in colour, showing that she is still trying to be glamorous and attempting to stand out even though she is confined to a wheelchair and must wear a protective neck brace due to the injuries that she received when she was pushed off of the balcony of her house by her boyfriend. Slightly later on in the video, Gaga us shown dancing, now seemingly fully healed. In this scene, she is dressed in a white outfit with black accessories flowing out from the sides of the outfit. This mixture of black and white could be being used to contrast the two different sides of Lady Gaga, due to the fact that black is often a colour associated with bad and evil while white is more often associated linked to good. This is an effectively used technique in this scene as it is showing the beginning of her transformation from a good, innocent character in the story to a more questionable, possibly evil character, as is shown later in the music video when Gaga poisons and kills her boyfriend. This is also symbolized with much more subtlety with the black highlighted streak that Gaga now has in her hair, as opposed to the bright pink colour that her hair was dyed in previously. Shortly after this, Gaga is seen in an almost entirely black outfit, now with only a small colouring of white in her hair. This is to show how she is no longer an innocent character and now has bad intentions, and should possibly be seen as a bad or evil character.
In conclusion, the music video to Lady Gaga's song Paparazzi has a variety of messages throughout its duration, hidden behind imagery and storytelling, for people to learn. One such message is the theme of sexism that is fairly evident throughout the video. The main points where this is shown are within the first scene of the video and the final one, combining to link the story together. Near the start of the video, Gaga's character is shown being pushed off of the balcony of her home by her boyfriend, who escapes any form of punishment for his wrongdoing. However, when Gaga gets her revenge on him at the end of the video through the use of poison, she is soon arrested. This can be seen as a social commentary on how women and men are treated differently, and how women are unfairly treated and possibly also discriminated against, maybe being seen as less important than men. There is also a small portion of the video which also shows a theme of racism and shows the discrimination that black people face, with the only black men that are shown in the video being servants for Gaga and helping to carry her when she is confined to a wheelchair. This shows the unfair treatment of black people in everyday life, also shown in the way that this subtle undertone in the video can be easily missed.
