2. Music Video Analysis- JLS - She Makes Me Wanna ft. Dev

"She Makes Me Wanna" is a single by English boy band JLS. The song was released as the album's lead single on 24 July 2011 by Epic Records. It features vocals from American recording artist Dev. The song was written by JLS, BeatGeek, Jimmy Joker, and Teddy Sky, and produced by BeatGeek, Jimmy Joker, Teddy Sky. It was shot in Miami, Florida in May 2011, and was directed by Colin Tilley. It shows JLS and Dev performing on a purpose built stage at a beach party, and is interspersed with individual shots of the band on some rocks and at night.

Boy bands are usually represented as characters for girls to swoon over. They dress in casual, trendy (popular cool) ways, keeping up to date with fashion and taking a lot of care in their general appearance. They are represented as individuals as well as a group in their music videos. However, usually through close-ups of them individually and establishing shots when they are in a group. Another way they are represented as individual is that often each member has a different bold colour which they wear. A great example of this is JLS. Part of their outfit in their music videos is of their allocated colour. Often as the band gets older they will lose these typical traits and go for darker, more neutral colours to represent how their music has matured. In the pop genre, the boy band are usually performing a dance routine whilst singing or are performing a narrative based around themselves. The main focus in pop boy band videos is the members to please the often large global female audiences. For example in this music video, they do this by showing off through their fit wet polished body, hence they are in the beach.

Mise on scene

First shot shows JLS the main artist of the video, a long establishing shot allows the viewer to see all 4 members of the band. They are on a stage which shows them performing. The audience in the video are mainly women, which relates to their target audience of young women. There bright coloured costumes are typical of a pop song, and all 4 members where similar outfits. It then fades to a shot of Dev, the other artist featured in the video. This allows the viewers to see both artists. The low angle shots allows the viewers to see the band and Dev dancing which relates to the music genre.

We can see that the audience behind them is mainly female’s due to the marketing to mainly a young female fan base. The visuals illustrate the music due to all members dancing to the song.

A bird’s eye view and long shots is used to show the band performing and establish setting. Again the location is clearly a different country which shows the typical holidays for a younger adults to go to, targeting there audience. It also shows the audience having a fun time watching the band performance which then catches the attention of the viewers, so they would also want to see them live in order to have the same amount of entertainment as the audience in the video.

Lighting

The lighting in a music video can create different views by the way the scene is lit and the angle and direction of the light, it allows the audience to recognize the genre and style of the music video and it gives the audience clues about what time of day the scene is taking place. A bright light draws the viewer’s attention, but a scene can be lit by using natural lighting i.e. from the sun or existing light sources, or by using artificial lights, just like this music video.  

The lighting in the video portrays brightness that usually be seen at a beach party. The use of natural hard lighting in the summer at a beach creates warm lighting to portray the summer warm feeling. The lighting on the band and the audience are equally bright due to an outdoor performance.

During the shots at night of the band and the audience in the video is very dimly lit showing that it is night time. The light source is mainly coming from the cars, 'high lighes' during their performamce, but also its coming from the studio lights that would be hiden behind  the cameras. The quality of the light in a scene can also hide or reveal things and influence the viewer’s reaction for example the use of lights in the video have been used very effectively, the light isn’t as focused, enhancing the artist or audience and making the background less important, but relevant at the same time to expose that it is a night beach party. Also the use of lights that are blurred and out of focus to allow the viewer to focus mainly on the artist and the performance.

Costume

In this long shot it establishes a summer party scene in the ocean, showing young adults having a good time, it relates to the song due to be being a pop song and as it is most likely to be played at parties. The costumes are mostly likely worn by a young audience as well, also due to them being summery clothes, relates to how the song could be seen as a summer anthem. It also amplifies the lyrics as it is about a girl ‘she makes me’ it could be suggesting she is the girl they are talking/ singing about. Also as it is addressed to adult girls target audience.

All members of the band including the audience wearing bright coloured costumes that is very light and less covering, which is typical for a theme for a party in the summer. There were some long shots of the main artist that was topless but wearing baggy black trousers, this connotes that they are in a warm location that is usually at the beach.

Dev in the music video is wearing an outfit that is very tacky and short which could be bought in high street shops, which again relates to the target audience and that they could also look like the artist in the video.

The female audiences are wearing beach summer clothing such as bikini or swim suits that shows most of their skin that keeps them cool under the heat and usually used for beachwear parties. This portrays that they were prepared for the live performance and the night party at the beach.

Editing

The shot types that were used in this music video (wide shots, mid-shot, medium close up, close up and extreme close up) are the basic shots we expect to see in most music videos, however there can be some more creative ways of displaying a scene through different camera angles. Camera angles play a huge part in emphasizing the artist and the band or to show emotions and expressions. Other camera angles that are simply the most common in music videos, are close ups, showing the artist lip syncing, and extreme close ups were lyrics can be linked to visuals. The camera never stays on one shot for longer than 3-5 seconds.

The use of jump cuts in this music video to expose the performance and juxtaposition between each band member and their target audience.

In the music video there were some shots that used different style techniques such as expanding time by showing the band performance in a slow action to match sound. Also there were some fading out to a fading in shots to create an illusion feeling.