Laura Bell Bundy, “Giddy on Up”

Music Video Deconstruction

Context

Laura Bell Bundy is an American singer/songwriter who has had previous acting credits and performed in various Musicals on Broadway (such as ‘Hairspray’ and ‘Legally Blonde’).

In “Giddy On Up”, Laura has found out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her and throughout the song/video is humiliating him for it.

During the song, the artist hints to her partner that he’s made a mistake by cheating on her, as she’s telling him to ‘giddy on out’

of her life, and throughout hints that she can do better. The video itself combines Performance and Narrative which is somewhat contradictory to normal Country & Western style music videos.

Goodwin’s Theory

As with most modern music videos, Laura Bell Bundy’s complies with most of Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos.

Similarly to other deconstructions I’ve done, I noticed that this music video presents certain genre conventions throughout. However, “Giddy On Up” can also be related to the theory where the lyrics match the music, as well as the more obvious one, voyeuristic treatment of the female body/artist.

Goodwin’s Theory

The setting of the video heavily meets the genre conventions of a County & Western music video, as it starts in a stereotypical rural American bar in a small village that seems to be in the middle of nowhere, and ends up with most of the town dancing in the street outside the bar.

This links onto the costumes in which Laura, as well as the rest of the town, are wearing; at the start the dancing girls are wearing short dresses and high heels which would link to the sexism around at the time in which the video is set

(potentially early 1900s) where dancing girls would stereotypically show skin from their clothes to ‘entertain’

the men. In the majority of other shots, including all the other

people in the video, they’re wearing clothes that you would commonly associate with rural America, linking to the theme and genre conventions of a Country & Western

music video.

Mise-en-Scene & Editing

This would all link to the Mise-en-Scene of the video, which all relate to the conventions of the genre, and the Editing links to the upbeat feel of the music, with lots of fast cuts (especially toward the end of the video where Laura and the other girls dance in the song’s bridge), however this fast editing is used throughout, usually in time to the beat of the music – which would also link to one of the other parts in Goodwin’s theory.

This could be a way of engaging a slightly younger audience with Country & Western music, which is assisted by the various camera shots and angles of Laura – a young female artist – herself. This would appeal to the younger audience, while still keeping the older audience (who are accustomed to more traditional music videos) interested.

Camera Shots & Record Label Demands

Throughout the video, there are lots of Close Up shots of the artist singing and dancing in her various different costumes. This will have been heavily influenced by the Record Label of the artist, who would have likely asked for close up shots of her face and physique to help present her to the audience and get them interested –

both younger and older (as she is a good looking female artist, which would link to the Voyeuristic treatment section of Goodwin’s theory).

Adding to this, the music video seems to have high production values due to the various locations, high and low camera angles (meaning a special crane would have been needed for the camera), the various costumes and high amount of extras and dancers used throughout the video. Although some are high production, the vast majority of Country & Western music videos are likely to have only one location

with one set of costumes in order to save money.