Textual Analysis - A Team

Ed Sheeran A Team analysis –

The genre of this music video is pop, like the artist Ed Sheeran. In the A team music video the main character is used as the focal point of the piece as there has been a lot of close ups used on her. This has been used to create a sympathy towards the character from the audience’s perspective. The theme of ‘wasted life’ also shows a link between the lyrics and visuals of the music video which has been further used to create more of a sympathetic feel. The music video displays a strong narrative throughout the video as well as including a performance of a band also. The video tell a story of the girl’s life starting at the end, giving a different perspective of her life. The target audience in my eyes I believe to be older teenagers and young adults between the age brackets of 16-25 as it reflects the age of the character within the video and the artist. The theme of the song revolves around drugs which would probably relate more to this age range as this is stereotypically the age where most people would do drugs or be associated with them, so it would appeal to them more. The lighting used within the clip is very realistic as it is all natural light throughout the clip instead of lighting that is unnatural.

As the music video starts at the end it shows instantly the girl dead, which would be linked to the drugs she was taking. It is also displayed that the girl is homeless as there has been a long shot used to deliver the environment she is in which shows she is sleeping on a bench in a sleeping bag. This instantly makes the audience want to know more about the girl and fall more pitiful towards her because the way she lives. This shot also shows her pulling the sleeping bag around her signalling she is cold and touching her face which makes the audience much more submissive as they can tell she is suffering.

Use the use of her being caked up with makeup makes her come across as quite promiscuous reflecting she may do anything to make money. She is also wearing an oversized man’s coat, as well as wearing ripped tights which shows that she cannot afford to buy herself any new clothes due to what she is wearing and is desperate to find other clothes as she is cold. We can see that the money fuelled for her drugs comes from prostitution as there is a long shot of her body and legs to display she is trying to get cars to stop for her showing she is desperate and you can see her applying makeup when she is in the flat

The girl is portrayed as the protagonist within the video as she is displayed as having no power. This is shows as she used drugs to get away from her miserable life and scenes also show that she has being isolated and by herself therefore is shown to be weak and vulnerable. This makes the girl have constant paranoia which is shown when she is looking behind to her to see if anyone is following. The reason it seems, behind her overdosing at the end of the video is that it shoes the girl trying to escape from the reality of her life, which contrasts to when she stares up into the sky and starts smiling, opening up her arms showing signs of being free.  

Toddarov’s narrative theory –

EQUALIBRIUM: everything is calm at the start when she is wondering around fields with no care in the world.

DISTRUPTION: the girl is homeless so when she is sat in the street with nothing but her sleeping bag reality hits her and this upsets the calm.

RECOGNITION: when she is sat in a café crying and she has mascara all down her face she ends up selling herself for prostitution to make money and then buys drugs with that money.

The representation of this video includes gender, the main character is female but she is both stereotypical and non-stereotypical. She is stereotypical because she ends up selling herself as a prostitute for money which is what most men think women are like however she is non-stereotypical because even though she is depressed you wouldn’t expect her to waste the money on drugs as this is quite a ‘manly’ thing to do. The artist Ed Sheeran is shown briefly but he doesn’t play himself, he plays a man buying a magazine that the woman is selling to make money.

Ed Sheeran is signed to Atlantic Records which was founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. They help to promote Ed through the use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, CD, TV, Music Videos, Newspapers, Magazines, Chat Shows and more.

Analysing this music video will help me with creating my own because it has shown me that the artist doesn’t always have to be the main character for it to be effective for the audience. It shows me what works well and what doesn’t work well within a mainstream artists videos. I can take some ideas and concepts when creating my own.