Video Analysis

                                          Justin Bieber – As Long As You Love Me

This video is from Justin Bieber’s third studio album, Believe (2012). Directed by Anthony Mandler, and edited by Jacquelyn London. It features guest appearances by Michael Madsen and Big Sean, the latter of which performs the rap on the track. The video is more of a short film than a music video as it has a very clear narrative. The video marks a key point in Justin’s career as a more mature artist as opposed to his first album ‘My Worlds’.

The video is in the form of a short film which begins with a master shot of+ Michael and Justin talking outside a large gate with sun gazes into the camera to connote the realistic situation. The whole video shows Justin in a very mature state with the narrative at the start adding to this persona. Justin seems to be ‘in love’ reaching maturity willing to risk anything for the girl he is in love with. The video features lots of Goodwins theory one point is that the video is very illustrative to the track and there is a strong relationship between visuals and music. There is a line said by Big Sean which is ‘Camera’s point and shoot’, just as this is said the shot changes to a shot of Justin pointing a camera at the girl.

 This happens twice, he also says the line ‘Now we on top of the world’ which then changes to a mid-close up shot of Justin and his girl on top of a building as if they are ‘on top of the world’. Also this video is entropic to RNB/Pop music videos because it shows a strong storyline whereas in most they just feature dance routines, flash cars/jewellery and minimal clothing. However this video does have a dance routine and a flash car there are no females or males in the video specifically for posing.  In this video similar to most RNB videos it shows an underground type setting where Justin and dancers perform a dance routine. He is also shown driving around in a smart mustang which is a intertextual feature in RNB videos. 

As the song quickens into the chorus there is a strong sense of synaesthesia showing short quick takes of the artist performing a dance routine and lip syncing in front of the camera. It is very obvious the record label have demanded features in the video which are close ups of Justin and also a performance by the featuring artist Big Sean. Having these demands allows us to see their star persona which Justin’s is to show how he is no longer the young teenager singing childish pop music, he is now more mature with his music entering issues such as love conquering all. His star persona is more mature, gentlemanly however much more arrogant. There is only a small amount of the male gaze seen in this video because most of Justin’s fan base are young so it wouldn’t fit the audience to have a redundant RNB video.

 There are a few clips of fragmented parts of the girl’s body such as her thighs. There are a couple of quick shots of male gaze however it is very minimal and not particularly obvious. Another way the male gaze is portrayed is where a mid-close up of Justin  taking pictures of the girl in sexual poses as if she is there to be looked at. There aren’t any particular intertextual references other than the fact Michael Madsen is an actor and usually in films so being in the video gives it a more short film feel to it. Also the video has a movie screen effect with bigger black bars than normal to give the feel of a real film.

Justin’s video fits very well to Propp’s theory where he feels people have their own particular roles. Its very obvious to the audience that Justin is the hero in the narrative because he has lots of close ups and as the video progresses he is shown with bruises and a cut up face from him trying to protect his ‘princess’ so they can be together  however her father gets in the way of it so he is to overcome the villain and get the reward (the girl) but in this particular video he doesn’t get the reward, the villain wins.  Another theorist is Todoror who thinks music videos should have a sequence which is equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition, reparation and new equilibrium. This video goes with this sequence to an extent. The beginning is the equilibrium where everything is good because her father is unaware of their relationship. It then changes because the father finds writing on his daughters neck saying ‘you r so sexy’,

 he then goes mad and forces them appart. Next Justin recognises what he has to do to get the balance back. The reparation is where Justin gets beaten up by the girls father. And the new equilibrium is where Justin is left without his girlfriend. Another theory written by Levi-Strauss is that all music videos feature binary opposites, a right side and a wrong side. This theory is very clear in this video that Justin is the right side and we are made to think this because he gets all the reaction shots, whereas when the fight occurs the camera is pointing towards Madsen so you are able to see he is in the wrong.  The narrative doesn’t represent Pop music videos because the storyline is very in depth which most aren’t. The fact it shows scenes of a sexual nature shows that his record label is trying to show him in a mature maner however it doesn’t fit the typical audience. Also it shows quite violent scenes when the father is assulting Justin.

The video does have a narrative which most videos feature, a relationship torn appart by a specific reason and they fight to stay together. It’s a narrative that can be repeated which Steve Archer the theorist writes about where there is a repeatability of a narrative in every video.

This video shows most of the theories to be possibly true however it does not fit with all aspects of their theories.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4em3LKQCAQ –The Video.