"Lean On" is a electronic and
dance song, it can be described as a house ballad, inter-emerging in the Pop
style genre as well. The song is recorded by music group Major Lazer and
French producer DJ Snake. The song was in fact taken from his third studio
album ' Peace Is The Mission' 2015. The vocal performance on the track is by
Danish singer, MØ who actually wrote the song. The song
was released through the record label, Mad Decent Independently,
on March 2nd 2015. "Lean On" gained them much success, peaking at
number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and at number two
on the UK Singles Chart. However, the track did reach number one in other
various countries, including Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Mexico,
New Zealand, Finland, Denmark and Switzerland. In November, 2015, this track
was named the most streamed track in 2015 of all time on Spotify and has
800 million streams globally, as of June 2016. The music video accompanying the
song was filmed in ND Studios, Karjat, Kaul Heritage
City, Vasai in Maharashtra, India, Bangalore,
and Stockholm City Hall. The video premiered on March, 23 2015 and
has over 1.53 billion views YouTube in July 2016; "Lean
On" was the fifth best selling song of 2015 worldwide.
The video itself is very cultural in terms of being set in a religious temple, the video mainly shows the vocal performance of MO, with the other involved parties mainly making a appearance at parts of the video. The video focuses on the dancing related to the religious cultural they have used, in which I believe to be Indian. This is due to the fact that they have darker pigments in their skin,as well as, from the garments that they are wearing this is also greatly linked to the Indian culture. The fact they are wearing no shoes shows a sign of respect to the temple. Although, in the video the artist is far less cultured than the dancers. This is due to the fact that they are wearing casual and sport style clothing. With the female in something that would be associated with a tennis player or netball player. They do show some sign of respect and relation in terms of being traditional decorations around their neck and the main singer showing use of make-up on her face, similar to what would be seen in traditional events and special occasions like a wedding. The style of hair is also very simplistic with two braids on either side of the hair. In each braid, material brightly coloured, has been weaved into the braid. They have taken what is to be a traditional Indian temple and used a more sexual and modern twist into the video. The dancers in the video have been portrayed as Indian, but the fact that they are performing sexualised dance moves adds a question of whether they have true faith in the religion or not. The clothing that they are wearing is very religious wearing what I believe to be a salwar kameez. They have been changed though, with the stomach being on display in all of the dancers throughout the video.
The use of location in the video is very diverse with use multiple rooms in the temple, along side the other side space and even the temples bathing baths of holy waters. In the video, they also have used a decorated bus, in various colours and patterns, which remain to the Indian style look and feel. The lyrics which really stood out were "blow a kiss, Fire a gun" which creates a contradiction against itself. A relation to meet love with hate and violence, a reference to Martin Luther King Jr. Plus, a reference to equality in society. The meaning behind the song demonstrates a grasp of humanity and equality across all boards or gender. However, the fact that they are mainly females dancing in video shows the traditional patriarchal society the Indian culture still remains to be. The use of women also shows to be heavily linked to a male targeted audience. with the male parties standing around watching the women dance. But, in parts they do in fact dance with the women, performing a different routine to the women.
This beginning of the video is very traditional, and exploring the culture of Indian life. The fact that the video begins and finishes in the same context, produces a complete story, but something that the audience can relate to, as they have already seen this image. The use of the pattern draws the audience in as little is known of what is to come next. The pattern fascinates the audience, with the deep use of red, displaying life and love, as well as, being important to the Indian culture. The light reflecting through the back of the shot, indicates hope and brightens the room, giving off the vibe of positive energy rather than negative. Indicating, that this video is not about sadness, but instead celebrating the culture and the country itself. The fact that it starts and finishes the same is also showing the location, where the video is being filmed, but an element of elegance with such a pretty location. The open sequence lacks any text or font of what the song is, gaining interest to the audience further. Differentiating to the A2 video, which includes the use of text to tell the audience the name of the track.
The use of the bathing, with her fully clothed, could be a sight of baptism, however the way she is covered with petals and man being there seems very sexualised. He is shirtless, and demanding a request through the use of a hand signal. The 3 males are also dancing alone in the temple, the only real time that they are shown to be alone in front of the camera, they are dancing in a very traditional Indian way, with some wearing traditional clothes, depending on the image that they are in the world of music. The lighting is very artificial and almost angel like against the complexion of the skin in the main female, portraying her as a goddess. With the dancers and herself in the meditation pose, they are very relaxed, the feeling acquired through water. With candles increasing this relaxed vibe further. They are also dancing around him while he is centered in the middle, adding further to a sexual idea. He is dancing with them, maybe they are demonstrating how to dance as he is white, clearly not from a Indian family and the Indian religion. The carpets on the floor and candles keep with the use of red, a passion and love for their religion and culture. They remain in the temple throughout these shots, enclosed in what they know, only the non-Indian characters seek the outside world. They are true to who they worship.
The change in location and the fact that they are located on a roof of a bus, is very different to what is seen in other videos. The mix of the traditional bus, with bold colours against the skyline of the buildings among the background, show a developing country. The colours used are loud, which is what is expected in a Pop music video. The costume presented through the main character is very bold and what is not a usual outfit for day to day life, she clashes with the colours in the bus, and actually stands out more. The fact that she is at the front of the bus, with the male characters lined up behind her, shows her importance to the video with the fact that she is the lead singer in vocals. She is holding a higher importance. If she was placed to the back of the bus, she would seem less important and the fact the audience cannot see the singer, would confuse them. Her remaining throughout is key, to understand who is singing. This panning shot shows a moving bus, while they sing and dance, very unique to any other video and the use of colours remind me of Boy George in Karma chameleon. The panning shot also indicates the surroundings with a mixture of what other countries are like and what in fact a developing country is like. The idea of it just being them, instead of the dancers in one for safety and it focuses solely on who was involved in producing this track. The use of multiple locations, in which link in some way is common and extends what would considered low budget, into something of a higher budget.
The
use of the dancing is extremely cultural, with the men on the horses, adding a
touch of class and authority, making them seem taller higher, as if worshipped.
Men in Indian religion are very important with the females, being submissive to
them and paying to their commands. The fact that they are evenly spaced, could be a sign of protection around the women or easier view to see and watch the women
in a sexual way. As if they are dancing, in order to be chosen as a wife. The
use of red has continued, with the ground under there feet being red. A very
seductive colour that is really important to the Indian culture. The use of the
tall columns in the back , with the height of the man on horses, they reach closer to the
sky, therefore, closer to their God. They are lined-up and positioned in a
location which is easy for all of them to be seen. This wide angle, but high
angle shot, is great to capture the location and the essence of where they are
filming, giving another intake of the video to the audience in a new light.
They fact as well they are dancing close to the women, embracing their culture
and style, but the fact she is looking over her shoulder, back at him, wondering whether she is impressing him and
where his eyes are actually directed. Overall, this video shows hints and touches of sexualised behaviour, known in some Pop videos, but is still very cultural and shows the religion in a traditional way.
The type of genre, for which is displayed Pop . The video itself is extremely random with little relation to anything in particular. The video consists of a young girl and two boys who are all of a similar age, The use of more boys than girls shows a link between the video and the real music video. The video seems very low budget with them basically walking and dancing around the streets and within a skate park. The video shows no story or idea of what the real video produces. The dancing performed is used to replicate the dancing in the original video, however, they lack energy and effort with their dancing. Therefore, making the dancing seem very pointless. The dancing is used to show a cultural background and to celebrate the religion and faith they have. I feel that its hard to determine what is fact this video fits into, but a use of performance maybe the right genre. With the use of dancing, and performing into the camera. I can determine that this is not a narrative, as no real story is present and the video seems very random to say the least.
Gender is common is videos and simple to achieve with the use of males and females, for which they have used. Males are clearly more dominate with 2 to 1 in ratio. With men used to show authority, although, I feel that she is more dominate with being the lead role and actually the one who is lip syncing to the song. This is similar to the video with the females being in a large quantity and there only being three males, but they lounge over the women, whereas this video shows no relation to each other with them never interacting with the female and only appearing in the video. The class elements makes me believe they are from a working to middle class family, with there costume being jeans and trousers, but the lack of designer items indicates that they lack to the ability to afford to pay for these items. The clothes are clean, suggesting they could be middle class. The location contradicts this with them hanging in a skate park and on the streets, if they were upper class, they would be in resorts and golf club locations, far more wealthy then being on the streets. They are not portrayed as a gang, as this related to black young and more elastic would be wore, with jogging bottoms and hoodies. There faces can be seen and their ethnicity is white, if they were in a gang more people would be seen and they would be together rather than portrayed in a separate manner. Secondly, alcohol, would seen and the time day is wrong, with a gang more related to night time instead of the middle of the day. They create the essence of a white youth, who seems rebellious when in fact they are good teenagers, keeping to public places and staying with their ethnicity good, which is often a stereotype of ethnicity.
Jeans, t-shirts and trainers are a common trait in this video, with the female clearly being the artist and the boys seeming to be just accessories to the video. She is the one who is based and shown to be lip-syncing while boys just dance. She is seen in white jeans, black top and a flannel shirt. She is also wearing sunglasses, making her seem cool and disguising part of the face, adding a mystery to her. The sun glasses are not used in a practical sense with part of the video being in black and white, therefore, the glasses are not needed and look pointless to the audience. The keep continuity however as she wears them throughout. The lack of change in location or costume, makes the video boring and seem very much the same throughout. In Pop videos, its common for them to change outfit and location multiple times, giving a undecided feel so change to keep to this feel, go with the flow feel. Addressing a young, teenage attribute. The black and white costume look does follow the trends of teens who wear blacks, greys and white in their outfits, adjusting to that idea. But, itself is colourful and bold, its not what you would wear all of the time and shows a luxury, something teenagers aspire to. Overall, the clothes are bland and simplistic, what teenagers would wear on a daily basis rather than what would actually be worn in a pop music video.
The inter-textual reference in the video is very limited as is the original video, most likely where they have gained the idea to use little reference to this factor. The use of the technology is present, with the phone displaying a music choice which is fact the song that they are performing. A great to show the audience who the original song is by, but showing that this is a cover rather than their own song in which is want is meet to be intended. The phone itself is cracked through the screen, lowering the standard of the film and making film look low budget, as well as, lowering the quality. The crack makes the phone a little hard to see, meaning real attention must be paid in order to catch what is in fact present on the screen. The use of graffiti, addresses a young feel, with teenagers known to rebel, causing disorderly behavior to the public as it is know. This implies a canvas of showing their street cred, trying to be cool and fit in, a known factor of the stereotypical teenager. The yellow does look as if its the name associated to the characters in the video, when in fact I think it's what was there to begin with. Really they needed to tone that writing down, by changing the lighting, focusing on the main character and less on the graffiti, as i find myself look past her and at the graffiti. The yellow to too flamboyant against the costume she is wearing, but bolder colour would clash with the yellow.
The video addressed multiple weaknesses and strengths, with the opening sequence i didn't initially see the opening text, showing the name of the song. Therefore, when the song arrived didn't know what is was expecting. The opening imagery is also in black and white making it harder to see a black title on the opening image, perhaps a red could be used to relate to the continuous use of red in the real video.Even a yellow would work, fitting with the yellow in the graffiti behind the female character. Some of the shots, i felt were very creative with the reverse effects and the use of freeze frames. This was eye-catching and took away fro him just walking in the whole of the video. Other shots that assist this was also a worms eye view of the boy in the skate park. Nevertheless, some shots were unsteady and need work, Some were bland and most of the shots were in fact far too long. Most Pop music videos are fun with quick shots, keeping the attention of the audience focused, they could have use more effects to make some of the other shots more interesting.
Some aspects of her lip syncing are in fact out of time, she is going to fast compared to the singer in the track. This makes it very obvious that she ins't singing the song, but instead miming the lyrics. Detracting from the effect in which she is trying to create. while she is doing this some of what she is saying is in fact the wrong words, adding another aspect to that. while she is singing the camera is focusing in a extreme close up of her lips, which i really like, its a good technique and is great alternative shot, showing the identity of the character. However, the fact that she is staying some things wrong doesn't looks great compared to if she was saying the words right. The dancing is also quite frankly embarrassing, as have no effort will doing the moves, some are related to the original video and Indian style, but they are not performed to a good ability as they are in the real music video. The video seems very rushed, as if it's been filmed in one day, instead of looking carefully at shots and re-shooting on different occasions, the boys seem a last resort and like they don't want to be their, giving the audience a feeling of that this video is not of a good quality. Overall, the video seems random, with a boy taking a walking and listening to a track, and then he is suddenly dancing with another in which they never showed him meeting up with in the first place, I feel that the story should of just been her, as the other characters are not necessary. He is then shown finishing his walk, it's not creative and some areas are filmed poorly, I don't like this video and it defiantly needs improving, with re-shoots, a dance choreographed and a better story to understand.
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