Music Video Analysis

Katy Perry's music video for her song Last Friday Night is a narrative video. It tells the story of a teenage girl throwing/attending a house party and being unable to remember what happened.

The first thing I noticed whilst watching this music video was the fact that it was. The first shot of the music video is a long shot of a typical American suburban street, which connotes the idea of the American Dream and perfect families. The camera then tracks a paper delivery boy on his bike throwing newspapers at each of the houses, at this point credits appear on the screen in a yellow font, symbolizing happiness, telling us that this video stars Katy Perry and has been made by Capitol Records. The appearance of young celebrities and well known people as well as Katy Perry herself attract a younger audience as well as these celebrities fan base meaning more views and therefore more sales of Katy Perry's album/songs. A jump cut then takes us to Katy Perry's bedroom, the wise en scene of the room is that it is decorated in white and hot pink and is also decorated with numerous trophies and toys which shows that she is still quite naive and sheltered from growing up and is good enough at a craft, or at school to have won so many awards. However the room has been vandalized and now has blue graffiti on the bed covers and the pink curtains have been pulled down as well as having three men asleep in the room. One of these men is asleep on the floor with a beard and glasses drawn on in black pen, this is the kind of thing a younger person would do to their friend while they are asleep. Another one of the men is tied to a desk chair with tape whilst wearing a shirt and tie, this to me symbolizes Katy restricting her studious side and embracing her youth and promiscuity this can also be shown from the third man who is asleep in Katy's bed next to her and is topless. This is also the first time we meet Katy's character who is shown to be a stereotypical 'geek' with her headgear braces and her big glasses. The use of these tropes quickly inform the audience of this as well as telling us this video will be a comic one. This is also where we meet the first guest star of the music video, Darren Criss is an actor and internet celebrity. Criss gained a large cult following when a musical that he co wrote was uploaded onto YouTube and went viral. Criss then guest starred on Glee, however he quickly became a permanent star on Glee and was one of the starring roles. Last Friday Night came out in 2011, which was when he was at the peak of his fame. The use of Darren Criss will have meant that his fans will have watched the music video to support him and possibly bought the song.  Katy also featured another star of Glee in the video, Kevin Mchale. Glee’s fans were mostly teenage girls, who have a larger disposable income than an adult meaning that they are more likely to purchase Katy’s song.  Two more celebrities are in this music video: Rebecca Black and Corey Feldman. Rebecca Black is an Internet celebrity with a YouTube channel that has over one million subscribers. Rebecca Black is most well known for her viral music video to her original song ‘Friday’. The song went viral and quickly gained millions of views catapulting her to celebrity status. Katy Perry knew that Rebecca was one of the most well known people on the Internet at that point and by asking her to be in the ‘Last Friday Night’ video that she could ask Rebecca to promote the video to her followers and gain more views for her music video yet again resulting in more money and sales of the song.  Corey Feldman was part of the famous set of actors from the 1980’s he starred in the cult films: The Goonies, Stand By Me and The Lost Boys.  These films are some of the most famous films ever made and are loved by many, which yet again attracts a larger audience. This also links to part of the video where Katy wears iconic 1980’s fashions such as a neon yellow skirt and a bright pink crop top. This shows that Katy is following the roots of her parents in the narrative.