Similar Textual Analysis- Katy B- On a Mission

The establishing shot of this music video starts by showing a dark area in London and the camera fades in. We learn that the building is the O2 arena in south London which is an urban area. Urban areas are common feature with dub step music videos. For example we see the use of an urban area in the song, Wiley- never be your woman. It used to good effect to emphasise a poor deprived area in some cases. Cold weather is often associated with England and is evident in this screen shot. It could be described as being a usual autumnal weather.


We are introduced to Katy B very early on in the music video. In fact it only takes 13 seconds into the music video. In this time we learn that Katy B is in a studio as we can see electrical equipment which you would normally find in a recording studio. This connotes that the music industry makes a vast amount of money as the equipment looks very expensive. The music video shows us that Katy B is in a recording studio singing the song “on a mission”. This music video is a performance concept predominately. This is because as mentioned earlier Katy B is singing to a live audience in an arena/stadium at a concert. It could also be argued that it is also a narrative music video as there are several jumps cuts between a recording studio and her live audience.


The editing in this music video has a very fast pace to it. The editing is constantly cutting and jumping between the recording studio and a live performance with many fans inside an arena/stadium. The use of the editing is very common in a dubstep music video as the music itself is fast paced. So the editing gives the music video a more realistic look. I particularly like when it is cutting between the recording studios where Katy B is recording her song. It jumps cuts back forth for about a minute of the whole music video then the emphasis is purely on her fans in the crowd. The music video uses a lot of sound bridges in this music video. I like this as it gives a sense continuity to it. This is good as to the public it seems free flowing and very clever. But, to media students like me, I know that a lot of time and effort has gone into editing in this video to make it as good as it is. All music videos mainly use non diegetic soundtrack as it sounds much better. I say this because non diegetic soundtrack can be rehearsed over and over again to sound perfect. Otherwise, you could possibly have diegetic sound from a live performance and the artist could be having an off day and not performing to their maximum. This is why in a music video non diegetic sound I believe is much better. There a lot of different camera angles used in this particular music video. But, the most frequent is the close ups repeatedly shown to us of Katy B to show her importance and the fact that she is performing to her crowd. The camera also is tracking around the crowd very frequently to show the size of the crowd and mostly that they are all having a good time and enjoying the music.
The mise-en-scene in the music video is used to great effect. Firstly the use of lighting is great as it emphasises that a rave is going on with all the fans. Dark lighting has been used with tints of possibly red/pink. This I really good I think as the ideas have been thought through really well. The use of research for the raves taking place in this video has been done well to illustrate the lighting effect that it has on people. The mise-en-scene is very typical of a dubstep video and has been put to good use by the research team involved with making this video possible.

Representation plays a big part in this music video as it highlights some key areas. Firstly Katy B is represented as someone who has a star image. This is because she is playing to a massive audience who are all raving to her song and immensely enjoying it. The music video also shows us that gender is represented as all the members of the crowd are mainly male. From this we could say that men enjoy dubstep music more than female do from this evidence. This is a stereotypical dubstep music video as it presumes that most fans are going to be male and will also be raving with tinted colours on the camera. This stereotyping is also evident in the song I Need Air-Magnetic Man where they stereotype exactly the same as they do in Katy B’s music video. Katy B is 99% of the time always centred in the frame. This is mainly because she is the performer and the main person in this music video. This is always the case with many music videos focusing in on the main singer. Otherwise, some people may be confused about who is the main singer in that particular video.