NEGATIVITY
PROXIMITY
UNEXPECTEDNESS
FREQUENCY

Lily Allen ‘The fear’ is about women looking and being ‘perfect’ in the music industry, from rags to riches. It is an interesting case to study because the song relates to some famous people. Also because it is trying to suggest what it actually means to be ‘successful’.

The video can be indentified as an indie video because of things like the caravan in the middle of a field and also the cloths she is wearing. The video is similar to the 50’s musical ‘Annie’ the reason why I think this is because of the butlers and presents dancing around her also the bow around the house could suggest that everything is a fantasy dream, ‘That’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic’, when she says this she is contradicting herself as she is saying the because of all the things that she has that’s why her life is so fantastic but she is also saying that just because you have it all doesn’t mean that you have a good life.

The video starts with a caravan in the middle of a field suggest freedom. Also it symbolises what she does which is festival gigs. You could say that the dancing butlers are mocking pop videos like for example ‘Kiss Kiss’ by Holly Valance because in that video instead of the men dancing around her they are touching her, this video is sexual and ‘The fear’ is not. Lily Allen’s video is also mocking musicals like for example Annie with the butlers dancing (the leaps the lifts).

‘The fear is about wanting to become famous and not caring about how to get there, ‘I want to be rich and I want lots of money, I don’t care about clever, I don’t care about funny…I’ll take my cloths off and it will be shameless, cuz everyone knows that’s how you get famous’’, this is an example of when she is saying that she will do anything to become famous, Even if it means prostitution. However in Holly Valances video is about just about having sex its not like Lily Allen’s video were she is not saying it but that’s what she means.

Lily Allen’s audience is from teenagers to adults; however her main audience are festival goers and females. The target audience is indie because of the fields and the caravan also because of the cloths that she is wearing.

Lily Allen is signed to an independent label called London Records which is owned by a major label company called Warner Bros, this means that they can advertise her music as they get massive market saturations. Warner Bros have a lot of money so they can therefore afford to pay for Lilly Allen to travel around the world. This makes the institution important to analysis because Lily Allen is supposed to be signed to a independent label, however when Warner Bros brought London Records it is seen as being controlling them and also for a quick profit.

When Lily Allen comes out of the caravan she goes into a mansion and says, ‘I don’t know what’s right or what’s real anymore, I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore…cuz I’m being taken over by the fear’, when she says this there are butlers dancing around her which could suggest that she is confused about where she is and doesn’t know whether it is a fantasy or reality, which therefore add to the story being a surreal fantasy of people getting obsessed with money and getting what ever they want. She then says those lines again but this time she is in a room with massive presents, she then starts to spin around causing herself to become dizzy which again suggests confusion about what’s right and what’s real.

The video starts with an open field which symbolises the freedom; it also shows the festive side of Lily Allen as we see the arty cool and alternative indie. We also see a caravan and this is very common to working class people. The clothes she wears are different to other pop artists such as Holly Valance in the ‘Kiss Kiss’ video she is wearing knickers and a loose tank top which looks wet this means the video is more sexual because the male audience have been given ideas of sex and nudity. She also flashes a lot of flesh. Whilst Lily Allen is wearing a vintage style dress with a bow, her costume is showing individuality and independence which some of her male audience will find it sexy and she doesn’t show a lot of flesh. After we see the back of the caravan open up into a mansion which is like ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ this shows us that the mansion is surreal and that Lily Allen has entered her ‘dream/fantasy world’. Before she exits the mansion the video becomes darker when she sings the lines ‘Forget about guns and forget ammunition, Cuz I’m killing them all in my own little mission, Now I’m not a saint and I’m not a sinner, Now everything is cool as long as I’m getting thinner’. This part of the song takes a more serious tone therefore she is trying to communicate to her audience that even though Lily Allen is fighting off the stereotypes of women in the industry, the music industry would prefer women to look or act in a certain way. When the balloon people start to join the dance with the butlers and coloured smoke it starts to appear as a dream. At the end of the video we see Lily Allen walking away as if she does not want that life and as the camera zooms out we see the mansion tied in a ribbon surrounded by grey, gloomy clouds which is different from the way the video from the beginning started. I think the video ended like this to suggest that even though you lived liked this you would still be unhappy.

At first when I watch the video I never understood it but now that I have analysed it I actually understand what the video is all about. I agree in what she is trying to tell us because she is trying to break stereotypes. I do not agree with what she is saying because she is being quite hypocritical because Lily Allen has money and she already achieved what she wanted to do as a result she is telling people that being rich would not make you happy.

Over time sitcom has changed, the audience, the genre and the representation. Sitcom started with as a daytime radio to daytime television, it didn’t have a big audience it was targeted for woman (housewives) in the 1950’s. It was targeted for women as it was on in the day time and in those days not many women worked they were at home cooking, cleaning and looking and the children, so therefore they were the only people who really had a chance of watching as the men were working. The age group of the audience has also changed as in the 50’s middle aged women were who watch sitcom mostly. Whereas now both men and women of all ages watch sitcom as they have changed as there are different sitcoms for different ages. Like for example ‘The Simpson’s’ and ‘Family guy’ even thought some of the comments or jokes are for older views however loads of young people watch them. Audiences are much more sophisticated now, they know the formula of the typical sitcom and so they are bored of seeing the same thing over and over again, they want more original ideas.

Sitcom has changed in terms of characters, for example Although Men Behaving Badly is not that much older than Friends, the more recent episodes of Friends are quite different to the final episodes. The most obvious difference between the two programmes is the clothes in which the actors wear. Of course this is to be expected due to the difference in time and location of filming but also the characters play very different parts. All the characters are around the age of 30 and live in quite a bad part of London and not too worried about the clothes their wearing; whereas in Friends they live in centre park in New York and most of the characters are always dressed in the latest clothes and some of the narrative revolves around what they are wearing. Fashion is touched upon a lot more in Friends and there is also a lot of talk about stereotyping and what men and women are meant to wear. Its not only characters which have changed, it’s also the humour. The jokes are not the same they are in some cases funnier, some people may think that the old ‘original’ like for example ‘I love Lucy’ sitcoms are funnier but some many prefer the newer ones like for example’ flight of the chonchords’. In the 50’s early 60’s

When sitcoms like ‘I love Lucy’ was first produced the technology was not as good as sitcoms which are being produced now like for example ‘ugly betty’. The original ‘traditional’ sitcoms were made in studios and didn’t have much technology as there is today. In the 80’s there wasn’t many black or Asian or any other ethnicity except from white, so they used to used white people and put may cup on them and dress them up to look like a curtain race. There are now sitcoms like ‘Desmonds’ which is mainly black people. Whereas in sitcoms like ‘it anit halt hot mum’ the characters are white who have may cup on to look Asian.

Representation has changed as in the 50’s in sitcoms they role that women always played was the house wife who didn’t work they just looked after the children cleaned the houses and cooked. This has changed because women how have more right, they have the right to vote and they also are more independent and now work and have rights. An example of this is ‘I love Lucy’. However this is still being shown in ‘The Simpson’ as Marge is a house wife who stays at home and cooks and takes care of the kids. Sitcoms like ‘My family’ is a ‘typical family (wife, husband and children) also who are white. There are now sitcoms like ‘Everybody hates Chris’ and ‘The royal family’ where there are black families. i think that sitcom will continue to change over time.