Music video narrative analysis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg59q4puhmg

The overall narrative of the music video concludes of a series of dates with the two different characters both participate in, each date with the original girl is fine to

begin with however interrupted by the alter ego the boy begins to enjoy her presence more.

Start: Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne begins with her walking into a restaurant with her date. She sees another version of herself, which is a punk rocker kind of girl the opposite of what she is now. She runs over and confronts the geek version of herself

followed by the lyrics ‘hey, hey, you, you I don’t like your girlfriend’ then she presents herself as another girlfriend option for him with the lyrics ‘I think you

need a new one’.

The director has blatantly thought clear of the star image the new alternative girlfriend has as it suits the male interest in the video more. She comes across more provocative around the boy than the geek version of her and he appears to like it as she drags him closer with the lyrics ‘I could be your girlfriend’

The mise en scene throughout the video is full of the essential props, costume, makeup and setting. For instance the confident flirt type of girl has more

revealing clothes on, in the picture she is wearing black fish net tights, high baseball socks, a small blue tartan skirt with braces, a tight top and rings and sweat bands etc., all used to portray her in a completely different way to the

original girl we see who has the glasses, the long ginger hair, pink cardigan and pink top and a long skirt, form that we infer a more reserved girl maybe with a bit more respect, also I would connote that the pink represents femininity and

more of a color suited to a typical lady, on the other hand the dark colors like the black and dark blue on the alter ego represent a grunge rock and maybe

aggressive character. Primarily, it just gives the audience an overview of the two juxtaposed characters presented to us in the video. The director has thought of camera angels to show off certain assets, on the picture above it’s a low angel

shot that shows the whole of the female body obviously for a reason.

There are various scenes created to make their dates look fun, enjoyable and entertaining, here we see a shot of the two go karting before interrupted by the

alter ego who always seems to be presented as the more fun out going girl which catches the males attention.

After a date we always see a confident better Avril lavigne because she has accomplished her task of gaining the boys attention, ‘I can tell you like me too

and you know I’m right’ sung shortly after this just supports the fact she’s a girl who knows what she wants and knows how to get it. I feel throughout the whole music video the rock version of her is shown to be a strong overpowering girl in which is made omnipresent throughout the duration of the video. The narration is made substantially clear to the audience that there is a long triangle within the

adolescents, which causes the rivalry between he geek, innocent and pure girl and the grunge, rock chick out to seek what she wants.

We see the makeup that has been used to signify a different social culture in this sense it would be punk rock and the back makeup, dark eyes and bright pink highlights support this effectively. Also the close up shot is primarily used to show her bold makeup, hair and also shows her jewelry, i.e. the earrings and necklace, this finishes off her look and helps the

audience understand what type of character she is, what things she likes and how she decided to present herself for the male eye.

Followed by the lyrics, ‘I could be your girlfriend’ is a birds eye view of the less provocative girl falling in the water, my interpretation of this was that the rocker version of her is always going to be above her in the sense of what men like or for this particular video what the boy in this video likes.

Again here we have a low angle shot which shows the whole choreographed dance which is quite unusual for a pop rock song but still works well, giving the

audience a full long body shot emphasizes everything in the setting i.e. the costume the background colors, the drums and electric guitars and just gives the

whole video a rock entertaining era about it which fits in with the genre so the audience know what they are watching.

She used the phrase ‘whens it gonna sink in’ and the dance has been done to represent sinking which shows significance and fits in well with the production and entertainment of the routine.

This is the album cover in which the song girlfriend comes from; we can see the vibrant pinks and also the dark colors, i.e. the black, this portrays an image to the audience of what type of person she is and what style/genre the music is. The grim and serious look on her face to me symbolizes a depressed kind of teenager, moody and adolescent. The love heart with the cross bones coming out also implies a rock chick or punk rock kind of girl in which we know she is.

Here we get a different view of her, with a provocative smile, this suits the song as she singing about going into a relationship with someone who already has a girlfriend; so a cheeky kind of naughty representation of her is shown and we infer from this that the lyrics and video may come across quite taboo for a certain audience. The vibrant red could suggest danger in which having seen the video we know she tries to steal someone’s date. The black and white spots you could say is a theme because it makes an appearance on both covers, it could be a signature style