KTA2: Content Analysis of a Music Video

I am analysing the music video She Wolf by the artist Shakira and showing how that follows the familiar forms and conventions of a music video.

First of all, the beginning of a story is starting to show. This is shown by a close up of the artist’s eyes opening cutting to a medium shot of the back of her in walking towards a full moon outside her window. We then see a close up shot of her nails growing and her shadow walking towards her closet and there is a wolf howling in the background. This is all telling the story of the song as we know the song is called She Wolf. Up until this point we have not seen the artists face. This is to create an air of mystery about her as it is an eerie start to the story.
We then cut to a close up again of the artists eyes before finally a medium close up of her face. Here she is looking directly at the camera which makes you feel as though she is looking at you. It then cuts from different shots of medium and extreme close ups before panning down her body and revealing a medium shot. She then dances which breaks away from the narrative plot at the beginning and follows the other conventions important in a music video, the performance. However, to keep interest through this section we cut from different shot types such as close ups, medium shots and extreme close ups. The scenery throughout all this section is a pink cave, this is to relate to the plot however still keep a glamorous performing feel.


The next part of the video cuts between the cave and a cage. It is here where Laura Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze comes into play the most. Wearing minimal clothing in a nude leotard and heels these shots are to make her look desirable to men, therefore they will like her video and her record will sell. There are many shots from here on that include panning down the back of her body and suggestive dance moves. However, the shots move very quickly from one to the next as if not reveal too much and just to tease. It is not just the male gaze that is important but also she is important for those who do not desire to be with her but desire to want to be like her.

The next part of the video shows many medium shots of her dancing in a group of people. This is seen in many music videos to express the main the part of the song and the most focus is actually going into the song and lyrics itself. This is because it is trying to sell the song. However we do cut to a shot of a wolf as it is still keeping the plot of the story underneath. It is so it keeps the narrative structure of beginning middle and end however this is not the general narrative structure from the theory put forward by Todorov as because it is a music video there is not so much of a problem in it to be resolved as here more focus is on the performance but keeping character.

She then dances on top of the rooftops. This difference in scene is to again keep interest to the audience. The full moon in the background is sticking to the plot as it is seen in the beginning of the video. She then falls back off the building but It cuts to her falling back and landing back in her closet. She returns to the bedroom and gets back in bed as if nothing has happened but there is an eye line match of her looking out of the window which then cuts to a shot of the full moon, this finishes off the narrative.

The sound used in this video is diegetic sound as its within that world. In most shots she is shown as singing the song however in other shots, especially those intended to create the male gaze, she isn’t. However it is still clear that it is a diegetic sound especially as she dances to the music.

Finally, after analysing the content of this music video I can see it follows many of the generic forms and conventions such as the Male Gaze and is different to other media texts such as films in that it has a different narrative structure.