Analysis of Telephone - Lady Gaga

This video is a synthetic video. This means it is about the artist selling themselves to the public, and not their musical talent. This music is a pop video. This is evident in the opening prologue, where we see text appear on screen in bright colours such as yellow and red. This allows the audience to identify that the video is a pop video. Straight away we are introduced to the theme of the video in a prison. We are watching through CCTV camera's, which is referencing Murray Goodwin's theory of scopophilia, and us being voyeurs. There is then an intertextual reference about the media making false accusations of Gaga being transgender. The whole video is discontinuity editing, it doesn't flow nor make any sense. There is a lot of cross cutting, leaving the audience wondering what was happening in between. Once again Murray Goowdin's theories are put to use by there being a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, for example Gaga singing about a telephone whilst being on the phone. Additionally the music video is in sync to the beat of the song. Moreover, the video includes lip syncing, which, according to Murray Goodwin is a very key feature. There are many more intertextual references, including the car called "pussy wagon" as seen in 'Kill Bill', as well as Beyonce being in a yellow dress, as was Bill. The ending shot with Beyonce and Gaga holding hands and driving off is a reference to the film 'Thelma and Louise. There are also aspects to the video that can be interpreted as male gaze, including a close up of Beyonce's cleavage, and Gaga's provocative dancing. This reiterates my point of the video being synthetic, and how the artists are selling themselves, and the main focus isn't the song itself.