music video research 2 Artist: a ha song: Take On Me

the song Take On Me by synthpop group a ha is a rather popular song in pop culture do to its well produced music video and the unique elements within it. While it holds some of the conventions of synthpop it is rather unconventional when it comes to the video and its narrative.

The video incorporates two distinct visual styles: the first is the use of fairly ordinary live action footage, the second is the use of stills with simple but plentiful animation to replicate the effect of a colourless comic book. These styles often interchange with each other through the course of the video, with some shots featuring both styles simultaneously.

The synthpop genre usually has very simple colouring when it comes to the its music videos and Take On Me is no exception as most of the video focuses on the colour white with additional shading effects to simulate a comic book world. Overall the video is very bright with very few dimly lit shots; this is probably due to the upbeat nature of the song and the copious amounts of white. This isn't really an unconventional aspect of the synthpop genre because many synthpop songs go between both extremes when it comes to lighting: therefore it falls on a middle ground where it isn't the normal genre approach but it also isn't unconventional to have this amount of lighting.

The narrative is fairly simple. It focuses on a woman reading a comic book alone in a cafe, where she is taken into this comic's world by its protagonist in order to live life. After facing conflicts within and outside the comic she returns home and the man in fiction (her dream) becomes reality. it is told through the use of the two distinct styles to show them both interacting with each other and going through struggles together; in addition to this many of the bonding moments they share are held in scenes where the characters are in different visual styles, one in live action while the other is animated. However when they are facing struggles they are both often in the same visual style, implying that while they may think that their circumstances are impossible (separated between reality and fiction) there is always a way for them to get through (symbolised in them being together in the comic or in reality).

The narrative, while simple, is unconventional of the synthpop genre. Primarily due to most synthpop music videos focusing on artistic expression of the song as opposed to using the song to convey a narrative. One small difference in the narrative is that instead of the usual cliche of 'boy meets girl' it is instead 'girl meets boy'; this may either reflect that this narrative is a self contained story, separate from the groups's experiences, or that the group wanted to use their experiences to create the narrative from an alternate perspective (the woman's).

The best aspects of the video in my opinion are the blend of animation  and live action to convey the narrative. However I believe the video's weakest point i that the narrative almost feels a bit too simple without enough depth to intrigue the audience.

(video directed by Steve Barron)