applying music theory to little mix

Applying Music Theory to Little Mix’s: Shout out to my ex

Little mix are a girl group that are one of the first group to win the X Factor, and are currently signed with Simon Cowell’s record label Syco music. The genre of the music that their music is based on is pop, and their main target audience are teenage girls. Their hit song “shout out to my ex” is about going through a break up and how they are doing just fine without them and that they are much happier without them. Throughout the music video its shows the girls being close and having a laugh together, which shows how the break up has given them a feeling of self-empowerment and that shows how their friendship has become stronger as they are having fun together throughout the music video. The song also become quite popular due to the fact that Zayn and Little Mix’s Perrie Edwards has split at the time which made the song very popular in the media and got the band extra attention.

Using Carol Vernalises theory on how the video is constructed through editing she talks about how the video is a visual response to the narrative of the song, and due to the fact that the song is about breaking up and moving on the music video shows this in many ways. For example, in one of the scenes in the music video the girls are throwing objects in the air, which represent presents from their ex and clothes/belongings to exes. Which is a normality to what happens when there is a break up where you would through your exes belonging away so you could move on etc. Also another example is where when the girls drive towards a guy and they drive straight past him, which shows that they are independent and don’t need boys to keep them happy, which shows their sense of self-empowerment and independence.

In Keazer and Wubenna’s theory on how videos have large quantity of cuts, visual effects, they explain that newer music videos these days have a range of graphic and visual effects. For example, in the music video as they drive through the desert there is a massive range of purple trees which have, been edited on the software to make them look purple to make it look more aesthetically pleasing.

They also explain how music videos can be made with smaller budget nowadays by the way that new software has allowed to make videos, amazing with no expense. And in this video even though it looks amazing it doesn’t look like it cost a lot to make, but it still looks top quality.

Mis-en-scene in the video is mostly based around colour as it shows bright colours to show happy vibes, and this is shown with the trees being purple, the clothes the girls are wearing are bright and colourful clothes as well. Also the clothes they are wearing shows how they have grown up and that they are independent as they are wearing what they want, but there isnt a sense of male gaze or any type of sexualizing women as there fan base is teenage girls and they try to be positive role models. Also the way they dress will appeal to different types of fans even though they are a group. As the clothes they were may appeal to different people as they like their style.