Dodie - Intertwined

The music video for Dodie's 'Intertwined' was released in April, 2017. The artist
began on youtube and the genre is alternative/indie. As Dodie's career began on
Youtube, she amassed a following before officially beginning her music career,
which meant she already had a huge audience to cater to. Due to her platform
being Youtube, which is known for being used mostly by teenagers, her music
video was aimed at teen girls, which can be seen through the first shot of the
music video, a dollhouse, which is similar to the aesthetic of the videos for Melanie
Martinezs videos, which play with the ideas of stereotypically feminine
upbringings and typical girls toys being applied to more mature situations.
Her target audience is mostly centred around the B, C1 and C2, as around those
socioeonomic groups is where the focus on aesthetic is most prominent. In terms
of psychographic groups, due to the young age of her target audience, a majority
of them fit into the aspirer and explorer groups, as they tend to be focused on
appearances and individualism rather than social awareness or stability.
The first shot is an establishing shot of a dollhouse, with the colour palette
featuring only pastel colours. This sets up the song for a sweet tone which builds
off of childhood and the idea of a perfect home and life, which is a theme that is
contradicted later on in the music video. This theme is also represented through
the font used for the title of the video, which also matches the colour scheme.
This first shot is then juxtaposed with a close-up of two dolls in lowkey lighting,
contrasting the light, happy colours with darker, much warmer and saturated
colours. Although the colours and lighting contrast, the theme of a dollhouse is
kept, with a child's toys being used to represent more intimate adult scenes with
sexual implications to portray the meanings behind the song.
The music video makes use of parallels between the lyrics and the visuals, aligning
the shots of the female dolls hair in the male dolls face and a close-up of the
dolls feet with hair in your mouth // Feet touching feet. This links to Goodwins
theory as the video makes use of one of his 8 main principles of music videos, in
this case the link between lyrics and visuals.
The dolls shown in the first few shots are then introduced with close-
ups of their faces, both in highkey lighting. Through the use of
highkey-lighting and the cuts between the close-ups, the suggested
relationship between the dolls is reinforced and is set as the main
theme of the whole video. This is then followed by a cut to a wideshot
of the interior of the dollhouse, showing the domestic and normal
type of relationship between the dolls. The video then cuts to another
establishing shot of the dollhouse, this time at sunset. Through these
establishing shots, the tone of each scene is re-established with the
darker lighting meaning darker themes are going to be introduced.
This is seen in the first cut from the second establishing shot, which
shows the female doll again, but this time with her head cut open and
her 'brain' being visible. This shot lines up with the lyrics and timing of
the song, with the song playing Things in my brain' as soon as the
shot begins. This also parallels with the tone of the song and how
more gory language is used to juxtapose the innocence of the
beginning of the song. When the shots of the female doll in daylight
and at sunset are compared, it can be seen that the doll has been
angled, creating an unsettling tone which is reinforced by the set smile
in the dolls face, and that a mid-close-up has been used instead of a
normal close-up, suggesting motion in an inanimate object.
The shots that are cut between often feature very different aesthetics,
with highkey-lighting being contrasted with shots of lowkey-lighting
and the colour schemes being completely different. As well as this, the
cuts are synced up with the most stressed words in the lines as well as
the beat, which emphasises the two sides to the relationship and
reinforces the unnatural and creepy elements of the two dolls being
used to represent people.
The theme of the outside lighting reflecting the theme of the inside of the
dollhouse are carried on with the third establishing shot, this time around
showing night-time. The scene following this shows the female doll holding
scissors, after which she is shown to have cut all of her hair off. A close up is
used to show the now hairless doll, with her being lit from behind and her
entire face being cast in shadow, with her eyes specifically being the darkest
part of the shot. Immediately following this, the song features the lyrics
because I cant stand them, with there being a pause before them and
harmonies being used to emphasise the word. This is synced up with a shot of
the male doll, which when the harmonies start, is shown to be sitting on the
bed while the room is flooded with a red liquid. As well as this, slow motion is
used to reflect the length of the notes for the word them, and this use of slow
motion is then repeated for the rest of the long notes throughout the video, all
of which feature some type of destruction or dark imagery which stands as a
metaphor for the relationship between the dolls. The use of high-contrast
lowkey lighting reiterates the nature of the relationship, and replicates the
lighting used in horror movies, showing how unhealthy the relationship is.
Throughout the entire video, no human actors are used, and so the motion of
the characters on screen is always static, although slight changes are made
between shots, creating an unsettling tone in the video. The use of dolls also
shows that the video is an imitation of the artists stance on relationships, as it
plays out a fake relationship with metaphorical imagery rather than a realistic
portrayal of a relationship. This relates to her target audience of teens as
people in their teenage years tend to be focused on relationships and tend to
exaggerate what happens to them in an 'edgy and over-the-top manner. This
focus on 'edgy' images by teens is derived from the 'emo' movement of the mid
2000's, and the imagery of the movement has carried on to current music and
art, with artists like TwentyOne Pilots, Halsey and Melanie Martinez using
similar darker themes to appeal to a teenage audience. Due to the central
theme of love and relationships, this video, in a western audience, would
appeal to teen girls rather than boys, as the idea of love is encouraged in girls
and women and is overall seen as feminine.
 Hayley Kiyoko Gravel To Tempo
Hayley Kiyoko is an artist signed to Atlantic, a major American record label which is a subsidiary
of Warner music group, which covers a large range of genres, with Hayley Kiyokos music fitting
into the electropop genre. This gives it a broad range of conventions it could fit into, and the
music video can be defined as a concept performance video, featuring the musician and five
main characters. Due to the themes tackled by the artist herself, often featuring LGBT themes,
the artists target audience is narrowed down to queer girls and allies, although a focus is put on
younger queer girls, ranging from 15 to 25 years of age. Due to the target audience being a
minority group, a large portion of them would fit into the reformer psychographic group, due to
the want of the entire community to be treated equally and fairly in their countries. As well as
this, the older end of the target audience would fit into the struggler psychographic group, as
due to the minority status of the queer community a large amount of them are forced out of
financial stability by their families and a majority of queer spaces being bars and clubs. This also
outlines the socioeconomic standing of her target audience, featuring mainly those who fit into
the D, C1 and C2 groups.