Music video analysis- Little Mix, Black Magic

Musical video analysis- Little Mix, Black Magic

Genre
The genre for this music video is pop whilst the genre or the artist is pop and dance. There is a typical narrative for this video as it tells the story of a group of outcasts who aren’t acknowledged by their crush and are judged by the popular girl; then through magic they become popular and humiliate the popular girl. A clear and obvious narrative is something that is expected within most pop music videos as they help to tell the story within the song and lyrics. There’s not really anything unexpected in the video as the magic although unrealistic, is predicted due to the title of the song. One small thing that could be unexpected is that the unpopular girls are in the library wearing Beats headphone which are quite a well-known brand and stereotypically unpopular people are not seen a s being trendy. There are not any intertextual references that i can see in the music video.

Narrative
The narrative in this music video is a typical cheesy storyline of a group of four unpopular students that have a crush on a boy who is dating the popular girl that pushes them out the way and give them evil looks. The narrative continues to show us the girls finding a magic book which allows them to cast spells on the popular girl to humiliate her as well as help out a nerdy boy and make a lesson more exciting. The narrative has themes of magic and friendship. There is a recognisable structure in the music video as it shows 4 out of the 5 stages of Todorov theory of equilibrium. The music video starts on the second stage of todorov’s theory meaning there is a disruption that is causing a lack of equilibrium this is shown when we see the girls as outcasts being pushed out the way and given evil looks by the popular girl. The next stage in this theory is the recognition of the disruption the part of the music video that could relate to this stage is when the girls find the magic book and realise that they can use magic to fix the disruption. The fourth stage of todorovs theory is an attempt to repair the disruption this stage occurs in the music video when Little mix use the magic to humiliate the popular girl, make the nerdy boy popular and make the lesson exciting. The final stage is the reinstatement of equilibrium this happens at the end of the music video when the artists are walking down the corridor and everyone is happy and dancing. There aren’t really any recognisable characters in terms of heroes and villains. The music video for black magic reflects a lot of the lyrics because in the video they use magic to make the boy notice and like them which is reflected in the lyrics “ boy you belong to me I got the recipe and it’s called black magic”. Also within the lyric ther is a couple of time when the word “Hey!” is reflected in the music video as the narrative matches with the time they say “hey!” such as when they get pushed.

Representation

There aren’t really any issues of representation within this music video, although you could say that stereotypical representations of age are shown when the older teacher is seen as being boring and dull. The artists for this music video have not been presented as celebrities and are instead playing characters. Little mix are shown as everyday students who go through from being outcasts to becoming popular due to the idea of magic.

Visual/ Technical Codes

There are a couple of different settings in this music video including a school corridor, a classroom , and library. The school corridor and classroom don’t have many connotation as the artist are playing students although the use of the library connotes intelligence as the books suggest there wiliness to learn. The only typography or written iconographies within this music video is the artists/ characters names across the screen at the start of the video, the names could have been used to make the audience feel more involved with the artist and the music video as its introducing them as individual characters instead of as a band. During the music video there is a very low angle of the girls looking down at the book, the shot creates connotations of them gaining the power as it makes them look bigger and more powerful. There is also a low angle of the girls walking through the corridor once they have found the magic book, this again highlights the power and confidence they have now that they have magic. The camera moves around to help tell the story as it changes points of view at some stages allowing the audience to feel involved with the narrative as we see it from both the perspective of the band as well as a bystander’s view.

Audience

I would say the target audience for this video is female, young teens with the demographic of D/E. The video is set in a school environment which then attracts the same type of audience because audiences can relate more to people of the same of similar age. Also the young characters seen having fun at the end of the video are used in order to attract the same type of audience.

Institution

The record company doesn't have a clear role in this music video and is not recognised just by watching the music video, but the idea of the music video as a promotion of fictional characters does in turn promote Little Mix which then leads to the promotion of the record company through the single/album sales. In the video, Little Mix who play fictional characters are promoted as originally unpopular but become popular and are then promoted as popular and magical.