Award Winning Music Video Analysis

Radio edit



Full length short film music video


This is the winner of the video of the year 2013 at MTV Awards. I looked at Andrew Goodwin's 7 conventions of a music video and how they link to this music video.

• Music videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics - Timberlake's "Mirrors" is in the pop genre so I would expect something quite different from this video. There are some aspects that are conventional such as the party and young love. However, there are several characteristics which are untypical such as no performance from the artist and no lip syncing.

• There is a relationship between lyrics and visual - the song in called "Mirrors" and many of the shots include mirrors or are filmed from behind a mirror. The lyrics play with the idea of mirrors, for example "It's like you're my mirror, My mirror staring back at me" and "We're making two reflections into one" 

• There is a relationship between music and visual - it is unusual in that the takes are quite long. However, there are also some quick shots changing on the beat. The rhythm of the song is quite slow which goes with the slow camera movement and editing. 

• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist - although Justin Timberlake does not feature all throughout the music video, he does appear towards the end in a room full of mirrors and showing off his dancing skills.

• The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style) - this video is unique as it's made in the style of a "short film" (Daily Mail - 20th March 2013) and is dedicated to his grandparents which we see at the beginning. 

• There is frequent reference to the notion of 'looking' (screes within screes, filming, cameras) and particularly voyeuristic (pleasure through looking) treatment of the female body - the whole video is dedicated to mirrors and reflections so the whole thing is based around the notion of 'looking'. Unusually there are close ups of old people, however you also see a close up of an attractive girl in her underwear and Timberlake is also shown dancing with an attractive female performer dressed only in flesh colour bra and tights. 

• There are often intertextual references-mostly to film, television and popular culture - the whole film is biographical referring to various events in his grandparents relationship. 

This has made me realise that although it is important to follow some conventions a really good music video is able to break those conventions deliberately which has made me think even more carefully about how I will use conventions in my own music video.