On November 20th 2006, the creators of How I Met Your Mother released the ninth episode in the second season that reached 8.85 million American views and they also released a song that became a comical hit. The music video for the song is below.
The song above, Let's Go to the Mall, is sung by a fictional sixteen year old Canadian popstar named Robin Sparkles. Lets Go to the Mall was the single that launched her singing career. After the making of the music video and performing the song at endless malls while on tour, Robin developed a serious fear of shopping malls that lasted for many years. Lets Go to the Mall was released on Robin Sparkles only fictional album titled "Make It Sparkle!" in the year 1993.
Construction of Reality:
The version of reality portrayed in this music video is an exaggerated yet realistic view of the world. The music video creates a realistic view of the world because it shows teenagers hanging out at the mall doing "teenage like" activities (such as flirting with other teenagers, eating food, goofing around and shopping). This music video does a fantastic job in glorifying going to the mall. In all honesty, going to the mall is not anything particularly special, it is more an ordinary and common thing to do. No one has THAT much fun at a mall.
This music video also portrays a world in which it is normal for attractive teenagers to participate in a random flash mob occurrence in the middle of a mall. The directors of this music video have portrayed reality in this way for Robin Sparkles. One of the reasons as to why they must have done this is because of Robin's fan-base. Robin Sparkles fan base is mostly composed of 13 year old girls. Since most 13 year old girls love to go to the mall with their friends, many teenage girls can relate to this song.
Creeds and Values:
There are quite a few creeds and values that present themselves throughout the song and music video. One of the creeds that are presented in the video for Lets Go to the Mall is that people always have a blast when they are at the mall. This video makes it seem like shoppers will NEVER have a bad mall experience (ha! I wish!). Another creed that is in the music video is consumerism. The video shows the audience that spending money is a good thing and is an enjoyable activity.
Codes and Conventions:
Thanks to the codes and conventions in this video and the lyrics, there is not a doubt in my mind that this song does not belong to the pop genre of music.
One of the codes and conventions of music video of a pop song that the music video director included was background changes. In most music videos for pop songs, the background or setting will change quite frequently. I recently watched a famous music video for a pop song called Celebrity Status by Marianas Trench and counted how many times the background or setting changed in the video. I counted 58 times! If you do not believe me, click the link below for the video out and check for yourself!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSRUDnw9uoc
Another common code and convention for pop songs that are often included in music videos are background dancers. In almost every music video for a pop song the artist is surrounded by back up dancers. Here are a few popular music videos for pop songs that have appearances made by back up dancers.
Taylor Swift- Shake it Off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM
Jessie J- Price Tag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxX-QOV9tI
Micheal Jackson- Thriller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA
Finally, the last code and convention of music videos of pop songs that I observed in the video for Lets Go to the Mall is that whenever a member in the band playing behind Robin Sparkles had a solo in the song, the camera man would do a close up on that artist that was playing the instrument. This happens in many music videos for pop songs. Check out the ones below and see if you can spot this convention!
Van Halen- Jump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwYN7mTi6HM
Flight of the Conchords- Carol Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cGoDns8wTA
Bon Jovi- Its My Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx2u5uUu3DE
Commercial:
Unlike other music videos, the music video for Lets Go to the Mall by Robin Sparkles was not created to sell the song. The music video for the song was made to further develop a character (named Robin Scherbatsky- picture on the right) on How I Met Your Mother. This music video was an effective way to develop her character because it gave the audience a sense of her childhood. On that note, the obvious target audience of this music video are fans of How I Met Your Mother. In my opinion, I do believe that the music video fits the song. The song is very cheesy and playful and in order to have a successful music video, the video has to be just that. With the help of Robin Sparkles funky hair-do's, wacky outfits, and Canadian jokes scattered throughout the video, this music video does indeed does this song justice.
#FunFactOfTheBlog: I really really like How I Met Your Mother. Like alot.
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