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Codes and Conventions of Music Videos
Intertextuality
Intertextuality is a term used to describe when one media text is referenced in another. This is a fairly common convention of music videos by A List artists, as they have the budget and the fan base to pull these references off. Below are a few examples of intertextuality in modern music videos.
In the Jessie J video 'Nobody's Perfect', a scene is featured where she is sat around a table surrounded by people in fancy dress with vibrant colours filling the frame. This is a very clear reference to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party from 'Alice In Wonderland', through the use of these contrasting colours and creative choice of costume
In the music video for 'Fancy', Iggy Azalea is wearing an almost identical outfit to that from this scene in the film 'Clueless'. Links in intertextuality can be as subtle as including key iconography, or can be developed further such as the previous example.
In the Taylor Swift music video 'Love Story', the story of the Shakespeare play 'Romeo & Juliet' is retold in the modern era. This is an example of how intertextuality can shape a media text. In the case, a narrative is being recreated to be presented to a different target audience of the original.
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