Alexandra Wells

The second music video that I am analysing is ‘Classic’ by MKTO and was directed by Josh Forbes.

This music video can clearly be seen to belong to the pop genre due to the elements of a party and a hectic atmosphere. This is also portrayed due to the bright, flashing colours, lights and the close ups and medium shots of the music artists. These elements are very stereotypical to the pop genre as Malcolm Kelley and Tony Oller are the centre of attention. As well as this, the simple editing within the music video creates a particular beat and rhythm that fits the music as well as the video itself, which would represent and appeal to the pop genre and audience.

The relationship between the lyrics and visuals are vaguely amplified but appears to me to be slightly disjunctive. The line “All the way to serenade you”, is sung when the image of Tony Oller singing to a woman appears only moments before on-screen. This diegetic lyric presents Tony Oller to be a ‘ladies-man’ and someone who can be easily likeable to the pop genre audience. Towards the end of the song, Malcolm Kelley sings, “Hippies, Queen of the discotheque”, while a woman dressed like a hippie and another woman holding a disco ball appears on-screen. This also represents the party atmosphere and elements of the pop genre within the music video. The line, “ooh girl you’re shining, like a 5th avenue diamond”, is disjunctive from the visuals on-screen as, when this is sung, we see Tony Oller singing to the camera on-screen.

The relationship between the music and visuals portrays how this music video securely fits the pop genre. The editing is simple yet fast paced and matches the pace of the music. When the music is upbeat and dance orientated, the editing picks up the pace to fit the upbeat personality of the music. This gambling scene shown on-screen is a relevant example of this editing sequence as the camera cuts to different angles of the scene while keeping in time with the music.

Within the music video, there are no obvious references to the notion of looking although the music video is centred on a variety of women. This may be the case; however, the women aren’t sexualised or objectified. During the photo booth scene, the fact that we as the audience appear to be looking through the booth camera at them is a slight notion of looking. There’s also one other very subtle element to the notion of looking, through the fact that we see a woman looking at MKTO as they walk through the door, and then later we see Tony Oller chatting her up.

Alexandra Wells

MKTO secured a record deal with Columbia Records before releasing their first single ‘Thank You’ in 2013 which was a huge success by gaining over 500,000 views online within the first two days of its release. Columbia Records has used this to their advantage and helped MKTO work their way up to the top as MKTO later went on to release ‘Classic’, which received over 60 million views online, and their other two singles ‘American Dream’ and ‘Bad Girls’, which received about 10 million views combined. Malcolm Kelley and Tony Oller are portrayed as gentlemen within the video of ‘Classic’.

There are some intertextual references within the music video which links to other music artists and songs. The video appears to have a 1920’s/1930’s style within it as, at the beginning, there’s a woman who’s dressed in a Marilyn Monroe way. The mise-en-scene reminds us of this as her hair is in a similar up-do and the dress and gloves that she’s wearing is similar to that of the famous dress that Marilyn Monroe wears. As well as this, the line “I wanna thrill you like Michael” is referenced to and reminds us of Michael Jackson’s song ‘Thriller’. Instead of this being used in a frightening way, this could be seen as being used in a sexual way. Also, the line “Let’s get it on like Marvin Gaye” references the song ‘Let’s Get it On’ by Marvin Gaye. MKTO have done this to promote their song and star image by referencing these well-known music artists, as the target audience would potentially remember who these people are.

In conclusion, this music video is a pop music video which can be portrayed through the upbeat personalities of MKTO and the bright flashing lights and colours within the video, as well as the fact that it’s mostly a performance-based music video. These elements can push MKTO to become likeable and well-known, which helps to sell their music and star image to their target audience.