Miley Cyrus - We Can't Stop
Links between Lyrics and Visuals:
There is a definite link between the visuals of the video and the lyrics of the song in this Miley Cyrus music video. One lyric in the song Cyrus sings 'To my home girls with the big butts, shaking it like we at a strip club' the visuals show Cyrus and her friends dancing provocatively shaking their bottoms.
Again, the lyrics 'It's our party we can do what we want to' link with the visuals on screen.
The visuals show a party commencing with Cyrus and her friends, connecting with the lyrics of the song.
Links between Music and Visuals:
The music usually links with the visuals to be either be complimentary or contradicting, sometimes to amplify.
The song begins when the hand shown turns on the speaker. This is an example of complimentary links between music and visuals because it portrays the image of the song coming out of the speaker. Again, when Cyrus and her friend are dancing, their bodies are moving to the beat of the music and their actions coincide with the tempo of the music.
Genre Characteristics:
A convention of Pop music videos entail a use of up to date and fashionable clothing. The artists and actors in the video are assumed to be wearing clothes of the current trends and the styles that can be seen in designer and high street retailers.
In this shot both Cyrus and one of her extras for the video can be seen to be wearing very fashionable clothing. Shops like Zara and Topshop are promoting white clothing since last summer when it came back into fashion. People like Kim Kardashian, Victoria Beckham and Cyrus herself have all sported white ensembles and some have been quoted to use the popular motto 'All white everything.' The man in the image is also dressed in popular attire of the current culture and time. Much like Kanye West, Jay-Z and Big Sean he is sporting a backwards cap, tank top and gold chains.
Another characteristic of the Pop music video genre is that the star acquires a lot of camera time and is central to the video itself. Cyrus can be seen in nearly every shot of the video in a variety of different shot types.
Cyrus is seen in a close up, mid-shot and a long shot in these screenshots showing her importance in the video and how she is central to the video. This signifies how integral Cyrus is to the music video for We Can't Stop.
Intertextual References:
It could be considered that the use of product placement in the media text is an example of intertextuality.
Beats by Dr Dre are advertised in Cyrus' music video and by doing this it will encourage audience's to buy them. The effect of the product placement may be to portray to the audience that the Beats Pill is loud enough and capable of staging a party.
Another example of intertextuality in We Can't Stop is comparisons between Cyrus and Cruella De Ville, the character from 101 Dalmatians.
Miley Cyrus' large fur coat and small dog resembles the characteristics of the Disney villain, including Cyrus' hair and make up. 
The big fur coat is quite controversial, much like the majority of Cyrus' music video for We Can't Stop. It is unknown whether the fur is real or fake which creates an issue for animal rights activists and caused an uproar for fans and audiences all over the world.
Notions of Looking:
Notions of looking is the ideology of people and characters being seen in certain ways in the media texts. According to Goodwin's theory, women are represented as objects and defined by their sexuality and attractiveness. Cyrus falls into this category well with her promiscuity and sexuality deviance. The majority of her music videos show her in next-to-nude attire and performing sexually explicit moves.
Notions of Looking can be linked with Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory. This explains that the camera takes on the role of the mans eyes and exploits women in front of the camera for their bodies. This could be the case in my first screenshot because the long shot shows the majority of Cyrus's body. The other two screenshots show Miley Cyrus being represented as a sex symbol in accordance with the Notions of Looking.
Voyeurism:
Similar to the Notions of Looking, Voyeurism is the idea that people enjoy watching other people. This means that music videos work because audiences enjoy watching the artists as people and find what they're doing interesting. Again, this can be done through sex appeal which Miley Cyrus is expected to do.
Theory states that audiences will be attracted to watch the video to watch Cyrus and her friends dancing. The sex appeal is present because of the exposure of her body in a provocative manner.
Demands of the Record Label:
It is likely that the Record Label for Miley Cyrus, Hollywood Records, instated that she must be in a lot of close ups in her debut music video for her new style of music and brand new image. Britney Spears' video for Baby (One More Time) featured a lot of close ups of her as demanded by her record label.
The Beats Pill is probably advertised through the video because of the record labels deal with Dr Dre Beats. Product placement is quite popular in Cyrus' genre of music and other genres like Hip-Hop.
Performance, narrative and concept based music videos:
We Can't Stop is generally a performance based narrative with a lot of lip syncing from Miley Cyrus herself. However a loose narrative of a party can be picked up on while the concept is that she is re-instating that she is young, wild and free and can do what she likes.
This screenshot shows a party shot which could be received as a narrative based shot because of the party storyline which accompanies the song. It is the main narrative in the video and apart from partying with her friends, Cyrus can't be seen to do much else.
The concept of the video is that Cyrus is free to do whatever she likes and this is highlighted by some of the more quirky shots.
This shot of Cyrus licking a doll that looks like her re-enforces lyrics of the song like 'It's our party we can do what we want to'. The rebellious attitude is a theme in the song and the music video and conveys the concept to the audience.
Analysing a music video using Andrew Goodwin's theory has helped me understand the theory better so I can apply it to other videos. Also it helps me when I come to create my own music video because I could shoot it keeping the theory in mind.
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