Textual analysis in class 2

Katy Perry- Chained to the Rhythm

This song was released in 2017 and was written by the artist Katy Perry, with the help of Skip Marley and Sia. This song is known for its strong views about the society and in this analysis I will be talking about the views.

Genre

The clear genre to this song would be pop, as it is upbeat and positive, with the genre of the video following this theme. The video included lots of bright colours and wacky costumes. This video is based inside a theme park called 'Oblivia', which could have connotations of people who enter are oblivious to the real world.

Narrative

In this video, the narrative is shown to be a happy setting within a theme park. At the very beginning Katy Perry enters the theme park herself and seems to be in ore of the atmosphere. This soon changes when she pricks her finger on the red roses and draws red blood. This could connote the idea that there may potentially be trouble in 'paradise'. Also due to it being roses, something pretty, could connote the idea the real troubles are trying to be covered up with something that is pleasing to look at. Which draws peoples attention away. There is then a scene in which the ride is called 'The Great American Dream Drop'. This was a ride in which houses were falling down off the the small strings they are being help up by. This could present the American house crisis, that made many families homeless. The next scene in the video shows Perry going on a high force roller coaster, in which she still lip syncs the song perfectly with no problems. This tells the audience that everyone in that theme park and trance are perfect human beings and can do everything they attempt to do.
Towards the middle/ end of the video, there is a scene in which they are in a 3D cinema and Skip Marley literally comes out. She realises that everyone is moving in unison and this lead to Katy Perry to come out of the 'robotic' trend and become her own person. Once Katy Perry has come out of the theme of being controlled, there is a scene in which she is standing on the wheel. With people watching her, waiting for their turn she 'rebels' and doesn't decide to run until the point of exhaustion. Showing she is stronger and can see right though the false paradise.



Representation

There are strong representations throughout this video, such as in the middle of the video, there is a visual of someone running on a hamster wheel with a large queue of people waiting. This connotes the idea that people are on following the same route and it comes back around to be going nowhere. Linking to the idea that I mention about the roses, the colour red is used, with the roses and blood. This colour connotes the idea of danger, which further leads to the audience to prepare themselves for something negative to be represented. Another key hidden message would be the ride in which a large white fence says 'safe trip home'. The representation of this could be the fact Donald Trump had the idea to build a wall from the US and Mexico border.

Audience

This audience can range between different ages, as it has a mature deeper meaning but on the surface seems fun and colourful. The denotations of this video would appeal to the target audience of 12-20 primarily, as the aesthetics of this video is a good example of a fun pop genre song. The younger audience would enjoy this song and video to watch and listen to for fun. Therefore, due to the lack of deeper knowledge it would be successful for this target audience. However, as there is a deeper meaning behind the video, this would target an audience of 21-35. This target audience age range may not be able to pick out all of the representations, but would definitely be able to realise there is a meaning in the recent society. On the artists, Katy Perry's, behalf this is a clever way to create a music video, as the target audience has been widen. Meaning that the video is more likely to be successful overall.

From this piece of work, it has allowed me to look at a music video that has a larger issue involved within the narrative. It is interesting to analyse as it allows me to realise how simple something can be but mean many different things.