Textual Analysis-Take On Me (A-ha)

By Eloise Neath

Andrew Goodwins Theory 1. Music videos more often than not tend to include a demonstration

of typical genre characteristics.2. There are frequent references to the concept of looking and the

treatment of the female body. The notion of looking includes men or women being portrayed seductively or if there is eye contact with the camera.

3. There is a succinct relationship between music and visuals. e.g. either illustrative, amplifying and contradicting.

4. The record label which the artist is assigned to tends to have certain demands. They often include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist will have a visual style which recurs across their work.

5. There is often intertextual references (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc.) Audiences enjoy knowing the in joke.

Meaning of the lyrics So needless to sayI'm odds and ends, but upbeatStumbling awaySlowly learning that life is okSay after meIt's no better to be safe than sorryI believe this part of the song is telling the story about how one of the characters (the man) is wanting to tell the women how he feels but it too worried and is fighting his feelings to tell her. This is shown in the pictures as they show him to be fighting different characters to win over the women.

Camera ShotsTake On Me used variety of different camera shots and angles throughout the video. At one point, the comic book characters were completely alive as they used all the different shots such as close ups and mid shots to express this. The most interesting part about the camera work in this music video was at the start when it simply focussed on the comic book, this gives the audience a bit more background knowledge of what the story is about. At this point it was zoomed out and showed several parts of the comic book, however it then began to zoom in and use close ups on one particular extract from the comic book. The different camera shots showed the audience how ‘Take On Me’ wanted to be viewed and the ideas behind it.

Editing The whole of the video the editing crosses between reality of a normal picture and fictional of a cartoon. This changes the affect of the video and makes it more fun for the audience to watch as there is a certain story behind it. It

crosses from one comic to the next showing they’re always on one continuous movement. This makes the video very unique and energetic.