John Dumo

1.10 Meaning Conveyed in Music

Video
In this document I will be analysing how two different music videos, J. Coles She
Knows and Christina Perris Jar of Hearts, use microelements to convey a
deeper meaning within the video as well as the lyrics.
These are the following elements I will be analysing:

Sound
Narrative
Structure
Mise-en-scene
Cinematography

She Knows uses diegetic sound throughout the song as the

artist is never shown signing in the video. The video share
some similarities between the music this only become clear to
the viewer towards the end of the music video. The story
follows a teenager named Kyle who, skips school with his
friend to drink alcohol and smoke narcotics, his life seems
complicated this is seen throughout the start of the video as
well as the end. The origins of the video is loosely based on
the song, this is due to the fact that the songs story is about J.
Cole having an affair with another woman and difference is
that the song references this fact almost every verse but the video
shows
this at the very end. But I feel like the video interprets the songs
meaning correctly without over doing some of the scenes. For
example a typical story would suggest various factors that an individual is
cheating but this video uses incredibly subtle suggestive scenes to suggest that
there is something instead of fully suggesting that someone is cheating.
In Contrast, Jar of Hearts uses synchronous sounds as it
shows the artist singing in front of the camera. The video
uses features a variation between diegetic and non-diegetic
sounds even though majority of the music video the artist is
singing and performing the sound as if it is live. The music
videos imagery relates to the song in various as ways. An
example of this is when the artist references an individual
collecting jar of hearts as she loses her heart therefore
referencing a heart break or losing an individual they care
about.

John Dumo
She knows uses jump cuts to transition between shots; being
a short movie more than a music video the cuts do not occur
to the beat of the song. The video uses the songs quick
tempo to initiate running scenes an example of this is when
the two characters are found by the police and start running
before they are arrested for various illegal acts.
In comparison, Jar of Hearts uses similar cuts but being solely
a music video it cuts to the beat. The video also uses various
special effects to achieve a surreal cinematic look. It is also
important to mention that the video uses the Kuleshov
suggesting that the video is in turn aimed at the ex-boyfriend
of the artist. This is due to the fact that the scene of the boyfriend is supposed to
represent all the women he is trying to seduce into a
relationship.
She Knows is a Narrative music video; this is due to the fact
that instead of a being a music video of an artist miming to
the song instead it shows a story. The story loosely follows the song, as stated
earlier, it follows the song in terms of the overall purpose but the connection is
only solidified at the end of the music video. The music video
takes place a run-down city/town in America, most likely close
to the home of J. Cole in Carolina, Being an artist who is open
to his private life as well as his past.
The lighting and tone of the song suggest that it is towards the
start of summer or end of summer, this is due to the fact that
the video has an orange tint throughout. In terms of being
conventional this video is the complete opposite of a typical
hip-hop song. A typical hip-hop song would be filmed in some
sort of studio and have narcotics, women and money surrounding them.
This is the complete opposite of the Jar of Hearts video. This is
because the video is filled with dark winter-like lighting mainly
consisting of Blues suggesting a sad and morbid story. I further
deduce that the music video is representing the past or the
ghost of a relationship; this is because effects such as smoke
and colour grading are used to represent a ghost like state for
the dancers as well as Christina Perri. This ghost like state
correlates to the fact that the clothing used in this video is
rugged and well used as if they have been buried for some
time and has decayed over time. The wedding dress has some
powerful meaning in the story as well it makes It seem as
though the artist was abandoned at the alter .
Being high budget videos, each video uses various shots,
effects and transitions. For example the Jar of Hearts video lines up each
character using a wide shot, this establishes each character and who is the main
subject. This slow passed video has similar shots within the she knows video but

John Dumo
the pace increases later in the video, and example of this is the Run n Gun
effect seen when the two actors are chased.