Analysis of Pop Promos

Mika- We are golden

Genre Characteristics

Mika's style of music is very typical pop with catchy beats and lyrics, it has a following of young girls and also has a homosexual following, his videos are typically bright and bubbly, full of colour and are usually over the top.

This is the video for "We are golden", the song is basically about being young and having fun and the video emulates this with lots of shots of Mika running around acting like a child, the use of long shots show how he is an adult that doesn't about showing his young and childlike side, here are lots of cuts scenes to toys and cartoons and the room itself has a childlike feel due to the mise-en-scene used e.g toys around the room and bright colours makes the room like a young boys room.

The visual images link with the music as at the start of the promo Mika puts a cassette in a cassette player and then the music starts and he starts dancing around which gives the feel that he listening to the song a singing and dancing around to it in his bedroom, also he is acting like a child which is relevant to the song.

Mika's performance is more performance based but not the stereotypical kind of performance as its not on a stage and there is not a obvious audience.

This video also has shots of Mika against colours backgrounds just performing and also this video has religious and sexual connotations with him towards the end of the promo standing in a crucifix position with an open roof and a time lapse sky, also the there are shots of him in a childish gimp style mask and there are shots of him with lights around his head which looks like the crown of thorns and also lights around his crotch which gives a sexual feel, this is unexpected in his videos and could hint at his sexuality.

Album Cover and Advert Analysis

This album cover is very childlike with the use of animation and the cartoon style gives a very childlike tone to the album cover. This album cover seems to be quite masculine with the space imagery and the messiness of the room in which the character on the cover is laying. the book that the character is reading teamed with the space imagery and the strange view from the window in the bottom left corner create the idea of imagination which again is childlike trait.

There are two different fonts used on the album cover the font used for "MIKA" is very comic book like and stands out against the background, the font used for "the boy who knew too much" is rounded making it look bubbly this also gives the album cover a child like tone. the advert uses the same image as the album cover but the space imagery is in black and white with the album release date and other information in white this makes it stand out against the black background.