Detailed music video analysis- Gwen Stefani ‘Cool’

The reason I have chosen Gwen Stefani’s music video ‘cool’ to analyse in detail is because it exhibits Todorovs narrative theory. I feel this video can influence my final product which style will still fit my chosen genre indie pop.

The video begins with a medium dolly shot of a couple dressed in black. The female dressed in black walks along her partners side with upright posture and a glowing smile showing that she is a confident character. At the very end of the cut she seems to take a nervous breath as if she is about to do something she has waited for a long time which then cuts straight to a zooming in shot of a female dressed in leopard print

looking at a lot less confident as such. These two shots have already given away who the main features are of the narrative and has contrasted the two characters which will be compared throughout the video.

After the three meet, the main feature (female dressed in leopard print) accidentally bumps into the male which I assume is her ex boyfriend. There is then a small montage of short clips, action match and photos through differerent periods of time of her and the male which gives the effect of all of her memories with him flooding back.

She comes in and begins singing the words ‘It’s hard to remember how it felt before’. These lyrics contradicts the visuals as it is clear that she can remember everthing due to all of her aideo memories flashing across which I understand represents what is going through her mind. As she sings she is laid on her bed in quite a seductive position with Marylin Monroe stlye hair which is showing voyeurism which is enhanced by the way the camera zooms in and tracks her body movement.

The director then uses intertextuality during one of the flashback cuts. The two are sitting at an italian style restaurant where the mise en scene is very much

like the ‘lady and the tramp’ scene. Everything in this scene is a perfect romantic scenario which shows how successful the mise en scene has been in this particular area including the sly intertextual refence.

On the subject of intertextual references, the director also references to the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ balcony scene which is showing how perfect and strong their love life was by hinting towards classic love stories.

The audience of this music video is a wide variety. It could be targetted towards female teenagers-adults due to the perfect love story scenario. However could be targetted towards young males due to how voyeurously Gwen Stefani presents

herself.

At the end of the song there is repetetive lyrics of ‘I know were cool’ and ‘Cool’. By this point of the music video the audience knows that she is not ‘cool’ with his new girlriend at all. There is 4 extreme close up shots of their lips as they sip from their cups which is representing her indigence of a kiss as her memories flood back to all of the kisses they used to have.