Applying Music Video Theory : Little Mix 'Shout Out To My Ex'

Little Mix are a British girl group who formed in 2011 during the eighth series of the UK version of The X Factor. They are the first and so far only group to win the competition. After their victory, they signed with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Music. The members of the group are Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall and Jesy Nelson. Their target audience are mainly young girls/teenagers which you can see from their promotional events. The genre of their music video 'Shout Out To My Ex' is dance-pop/power-pop. This music video, is about a group of girls helping one another get over a break-up. Throughout the video the girls are seen as happy and showing how they have moved on from being sad. This shows self-empowerment due to the band also being role models for younger girls. This video caused a stir within the media due to Perrie and Zayn separating their relationship. However, this song had nothing to do with their break-up due to the record label writing the song for the girls. On the other hand, this did increase publicity for the group.

Using Railton's theory, this music video is categorised as a Staged Performance Music Video. This means the footage was designed for this specific song along with it matching the groups genre. It matches this category due to the girls addressing the camera directly, Lip-syncing and being in an incongruous location. Furthermore, all action from the real world is removed from the video.

When watching each of the girls screen time, all of them are either seen as a group or individually using close-up shots; all of them have an equal amount of screen time. There is no lead singer in the group and they share the lyrics equally like their amount of screen time. Close-up shots are mainly used when they are singing individually. For example, Perrie sings on her own at the beginning of the song meaning the camera focus is mainly on her only. This is repeated throughout the music video on each of the girls. When the girls sing as a chorus they are always shot as a group. Within this video, they are mainly viewed using mid shots, Eagle view and all share screen time. Each of the mid shots show the girls having fun as a group, laughing and smiling, which portrays friendship and happiness within the group. Camera movement such as panning is also used to show all angles of the girls as a group and following their movement.

The use of editing within this music video relates to some of Keazor and Wubenna's theory. This music video shows some of the specific conventions most music videos follow such as cutting to the beat and synchronising the footage with the song and the girls movement. Slow motion is also used within the video to exaggerate movements for example when the girls are throwing props into the air. In addition to this, footage is also cut to show the location and environment of where the video is set. High angles are used to address the location however, its natural environment has been changed to be more colourful. For example, the trees are purple and the sky is a bright blue along with their being no real world movement/existance. This however, again addresses the happiness of the girls and could also represent how they have moved on from their breakup to a better place. Also, following Kaplan's theory, you can understand that their footage has been edited unlike how you would notice a film has been edited which is recognised a lot in music videos.

Use of Mise-en-Scene within this video is mainly about colour. Bright colours are seen all the way through the video which creates a happy, powerful, summery feeling. It creates a happy vibe for the song even though it is about a break up. It is not seen as dull and gloomy which gives young girls a message of not being sad about boys and how you are better without them and better being happy with friends. The girls hair and makeup is rather dolled up and festival-like (glittery) giving a girly vibe to them as a group. Also, their clothes are rather summery and revealing. Therefore, having so much us of hair, makeup and costume shows the audience how the group are growing up from how they first began and are getting older with use of lyrics, video content and their look. Vernailles believes that verbal and visual codes combine to create representations of race, class, gender, sexuality and performance. Sexuality, gender and performance are mostly seen within this video due to them being all girls and also representing their sexuality by describing their breakup with a boy. Also, their performance is showing how they are much older now and this does effect their content however, is still appropriate for their targeted audience. Also, all of the girls appeal to different target audiences for example, they have people of different ethnicity and weight.

Goodwin's theory of there being a relationship between lyrics and video content is shown at certain points within this video. A main example is when Perrie sings the lyrics 'forget that boy, I'm over it' and Jade holds a gun shooting the words 'over it'. These lyrics are illustrated within the video with the use of camera work and lyric content. Furthermore, the use of performance within the music video from the girls is seen as 'commercial exhibitionist' according to Carlsson's theory. This means the girls are used within the video for wanting to sell their own body image, face, voice etc to be within the spotlight and gain success for their videos.