Blog Post #2: Music Video Analysis

Grenade - Bruno Mars

In this music video, reality is expressed with the message in the song but not through the way he portrays it. The reality of this video is what he is trying to say in the song, which is that he would do anything for the love of his life, but he doesn't portray a reality of it because during the music video he is pulling around a piano, which I'm pretty sure most people won't do when they have their heart broken. It does have some realistic elements to it, such as the message he is conveying, which is that he would do anything for her even though she is cheating on him. It is also portraying some part of reality with how hurt he feels throughout singing the song and when he sees his ex with another guy. It's presented in this way because it is showing the idea of the song in a literal way. In the song he says, "I would catch a grenade for you, throw my hand on a blade for you, I would jump in front of a train for you," and this is showing his main message in the song in a bit of a hidden context.

This song is about a guy who falls in love with a girl and even though she cheats on him, he still loves her and would still do anything for her even though he knows she doesn't care about him anymore. In this video, he never smiles and always looks down and heart broken. This is one of the codes and conventions of a break up song. Another code and convention is that he sees the girl with another guy as he is passing by, and most videos that have to do with heart break, you see the girl or guy that has moved on with another person. The lighting in the song isn't very bright, even though he is walking around on a sunny day, they make it a bit darker with editing. The camera angles are wide and show him walking with the piano through out the city.

The creeds and values that are presented in this video are that it is very hard to get over someone who you are still in love with yet they don't love you back.

This video appeals to teenagers because Bruno is tackling a subject that most teenagers can relate to. Bruno Mars is also considered a mainstream artist and the song was always played on the radio when it came out (and it still plays frequently on a lot of radio stations), the music video was always on Much Music when it came out and many teenagers were/are exposed to it. A lot of teenagers are drawn to more mainstream music, but since this song is a mix of different genres like R & B and pop and it is about a break up, many different types of teenagers like this song.

This music video is an alright, not the greatest video and not the worst. It doesn't have much of a story in the video itself, it is basically just him dragging the piano around town. It shows the viewers just how bad he feels. Because Bruno Mars is considered mainstream, this video is pretty successful because of his large fan base and the general curiosity from most of the media every time an artist releases a music video. It's a video that people might watch once or twice, but not the kind of music video people will watch over and over again.