Goodwin Analysis: If This Is Love - The Saturdays

I decided to use the video for If This Is Love by The Saturdays as this song was their debut single as a band, which is what we will be doing for our project.

Genre characteristics
As a music video for a girlband in the genre of pop, there are a few conventions it had to include to show this. Firstly, there are many close ups/medium close ups of each other the band members, all well lit, making them seem perfect and flawless. This use of beauty shots highlights the fantasy of girlbands, making girls look up to them and boys being attracted to them. There are also many long shots of the whole band, either walking together or performing in a set position, showing the unity of the band. On the walking shots the camera also concentrates on the girls' legs, showing the pop convention of sexualising or showing the perfection of the artists.

Relationships between the lyrics and visuals
There isn't a perfect straightfoward link between the lyrics and the visuals in this video, with this being a performance based video, with the narrative of the girls performing in a shop window. There may be the odd links, for example Vanessa leans back into her chair when she sings the line 'Are you picturing me lying across your bed?', and we also see the narrative of when the boy leans to the window and gives Frankie his phone number, reflecting the message of love in the song.

Relationships between the music and visuals
The video has been edited and cut in post production to match the beat of the music, and to highlight the different parts of the song. This has been shown especially well at the beginning of the song (before the singing begins), the bridges and the middle eight. At the beginning of the song just before the lyrics kick in we hear some fast beats to the music and this has been shown by showing short clips of each of the girls getting ready, all cut to each beat of the music. This has also been shown in the middle eight, where it starts off slow and then picks up the pace, which is again shown with longer shots and then fast shots, all cut to the beat. The end of the video also reflects with the end of the song too, with the fade to black of the girls walking away, and then the turning off of the lights in the shop.

Artist identity - close ups and motifs
As noted in the first paragraph, there are a lot of close ups to show the girls' faces and legs, to highlight the perfection of all five of the girls in the band. We see a lot of actions of the girls with their hair and eyes to emphasise the femininity; promoting their image and targeting to their female audience as role models. They are either running their hands through their hair, spraying their hair or turning their heads to move their hair, all of which highlight their girliness. We also get quite a lot of close ups of their faces when they are opening their eyes and batting their eyelashes, which is again a feminine trait.
As a girlband as a whole, we also get the artist identity of the girls being united with similar short dresses, but all of them are different bold colours to show their individuality. This motif has been used all over their branding, with the milticoloured dressed also being used for their album artwork.

References to the notion of looking
This video shows a large notion of looking, with the girls performing in a shop window, with people pressed to the glass, watching them. We see many long shots of the crowd jumping and screaming at the girls throughout the video, all with cameras. This notion of looking is also shown at the beginning with the shots of all the girls looking into the mirror and getting ready.