Laura Bell Bundy, "Giddy On Up" Music Video Deconstruction

1. Laura Bell Bundy, “Giddy on Up”
Music Video Deconstruction

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.