How do the elements of media language combine to create meaning in Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran? Make reference to
Intertextuality/referential codes
Ideologies
Editing
Knee jerk reaction
Bad Habits creates an unusual and exiting set of meanings for it's target audience
or
Bad Habits presents a range of unconventional ideological perspectives by using intertextual references and unusual editing techniques
Plan
subversive gender roles
pink
Close up shot
typical vampire makeup
Unconventionally dressed
Stereotypically feminine MES
BEV
Establishing montage
Inner city setting
setting
Mise en scene of concrete and shops
Binary opposition between men and women
Salon: stereotypically female space
Use of bright neon colour
80's iconography
Subversive gender norms
Pink suit
Glittery makeup
Queer iconography and makeup
Subversion of heterosexuality
Target gay audience?
Ketchup: symbolic of blood
Punk, drag, queer references
Much younger supporting characters
Attract younger audiences
Ethnically diverse
Wilting flower symbolic of death
Death is a gift?
Identity
Introduction
Media language refers to the codes and conventions used in a media product to convey the producer's ideology. In this essay I shall argue Bad Habits uses subversive and postmodern representations to present an unconventional ideology using intertextuality and unconventional editing. Ed Sheeran is a pop musician with an enormous fanbase.
Content
- The video makes heavy use of intertextual references to vampire films. MES of Sheeran's fangs are a clear reference to the conventions of the vampire film. Vampires are often represented as violent violent and sexual and exciting beings, which associates Sheeran with this ideology. Additionally, the reference to vampire iconography will particularly appeal to teenage girls: Sheeran's target audience
- Representation of queer/punk/drag characters, represented through the elaborate and eccentric MES of the brightly coloured costumes constructs a specific appeal to young queer audience and those in to drag culture. Additionally, these references to drag culture are currently very popular and on trend, allowing this video to appeal and resonate with a much wider audience.
- Pop genre conventions are met through the jumpy, fast paced and high temp editing, which constructs an exciting mode of address for the teenage girl target audience.
- A binary opposition is constructed between the drab and boring 'normal people', the the colourful and exciting vampires. This is primarily reinforced through the exciting and bright colours of the MES of the costumes, as well as the atypical and subversive makeup (glittery) that Sheeran is wearing
- An ideology is constructed is that being unusual is both cool and to be accepted. Sheeran is comfortable in a female coded space, and he appears comfortable with his strange, exciting young vampire friends
- Intense and disorientating editing replicates and encodes exactly how unsettling these vampires are. The video is highly polysemic, and Sheeran is coded as being both threatening and violent, and exciting and different. This allows audiences to make their own judgements
- Low key lighting constructs dark and drab and run down setting. The video is set in a rundown inner-city shopping centre, which has connotations of working class lifestyles. This is further reinforced through the highly ethnically diverse representation of the vampires, which represents people of colour as being powerful, confident, exiting, and sexy. This is a very clear example of stereotyping, and this allows the video to appeal to a larger audience by presenting an exciting an edgy ideology
- Postmodernism: deliberately challenging and confusing use of iconography. By combing a range of referential elements, this video is creating a deliberately confusing and exciting mode of address. A whole range of media language is combined with apparently little thought for the meanings it creates, in order to create exciting new meanings for the audience
- Hermenutic codes are frequently used in order to excite and interest the audience. Why is Sheeran a vampire Why is he surrounded by gay iconography?
- Bad habits uses a range of intertextual references to construct an atypical and highly challenging mode of address for his many fans