Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are
In the music video there are several relationships between the lyrics and the visuals. One example of this is when the words "oh her eyes, her eyes" are sung by Bruno Mars, a computerized image of the girl's eyes appear on the screen, which is an evident link between lyrics and visuals.There are two more examples like this in the music video, as when Mars sings the words "her hair, her hair", a picture of the woman's head appears, and the hair in the image moves, which brings the audience's attention directly to her hair, linking it with the lyrics being sung at that moment in time. One more example of this is when Mars sings the lyrics "and when you smile", an image of the woman smiling is made from tape, like the other two examples appears on the screen. This, like the other two examples, is a clear link between the lyrics and the visuals of the song.
There are also constant links between the music and the visuals throughout the video. One example of this is at the beginning of the song, before Mars starts singing, there is a drum beat, and an image of a drum being flicked by a thumb to the beat appears on the screen. This is a link between the music and visuals as the actions on the screen are perfectly in time with the music playing at that time. Another link between the two is when a piano sound can be heard in the song, an image of a piano comes on the screen and is being played to the sound of the beat, the same as the drum at the beginning. Like the drum, this is a link between the music and the visuals because the action on the screen is matching the beat of the music being played at that moment. One more link between the two is at several times throughout the song, there are images of Bruno Mars (made from tape) lip singing to the lyrics of the song. This is a relationship between music and lyrics as Mars' mouth is lip singing the lyrics at the exact time as they are being sung.
There are two demands from the record label in this video. One of them is that there are constant close-ups of Mars throughout the video. This is done because he is the artist, and they want him to be shown as much as possible, as he is the most important person in the video. The other is that there are frequent close-ups of the woman in the video. This is done because the song is describing this woman, and close-ups are needed so the audience can see what she looks like and how when Mars describes her, the part of her body he describes is shown on the screen to magnify the point.
There are two examples of iconography throughout the video. The first one that we can see is shown at the very start, and is shown during the whole video. It is the hat that Bruno Mars is wearing. In most of his videos, he is seen wearing a hat, mostly similar to the one in this video, and is therefore iconography as it is recognized in most of his videos. The other example isn't shown until later in the video, and it is the usage of the piano, and how Mars is shown using it. In virtually all of Mars' videos, he is shown playing an instrument, usually the piano, and in this video he is shown playing the piano and singing at the same time. This is also iconography as it is a constant event in most of his videos, and he is recognized for doing so.
There are two example of Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory used in this video. The first example is at the very start of the song, when the camera starts on the woman's chest area, and then tilts up to her face. This is showing the stereotypical way in which men look at women, by starting lower on their body, then moving up to their faces. Another example of this in the video is mid-way through the video, there is a shot from behind the woman of her getting up from a chair. The camera has a very good shot of her bum and as she walks round to Mars, the camera moves round and follows her, keeping her bum in shot. This is showing how men are thought to always concentrate on these two areas of the female body rather than the face, and is a prime example of the male gaze theory.
