Intertextuality

Some music videos like to add a reference towards another pieces of media such as songs, films, artwork and fashion. Intertextuality can be either the main part of the video or just small references in the corner of the video for the viewers to find. For example a video that uses intertextuality throughout is Taylor Swift's "Love Story" which is based on Shakespeare's novel "Romeo and Juliet".

The video is based around a forbidden love story and the song even references both the names 'Romeo' and 'Juliet'. The costumes and setting match the theme of 'Romeo and Juliet' which makes the intertextuality very clear the second the video is clicked on, however Taylor Swift has added a small 'modern' section to the video to give the story her own twist.

A video that has subtle references is Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night". The video is fun and enjoyable to watch but their are a few hidden references that have to be looked at closely.

A larger part of the music video is made to look like a film with the credits and opening sequence to make it look like a official movie extract. This is a clever way of presenting a music video with a strong narrative.

A smaller piece of intertextuality is the social media page that is briefly shown at the beginning of the song. The page is called 'Friendplace' which is a small nod towards 'Facebook' as the two pages share many similarities such as users having their own personal profile which they can update with statuses and pictures that people can comment on. The reason it was a made up social media site and not an actual Facebook page could be because of copyright laws or even because it was easier to make a fake site than use a real one.

A, possibly more obvious, piece of intertextuality is the use of Rebecca Black in the video. Katy Perry's song is about partying on a Friday and having fun and Rebecca Black became famous for making a video about Friday. Having her as the main character relates back to her video 'Friday' and she is continuing this theme by throwing a party on a Friday in Katy Perry's video.

The final bit of intertextuality that I could find was the game 'Just Dance' being played during the video. The video clearly states that it is Just Dance as the layout of the game is exactly the same but also the screen has the Just Dance logo on it. This could have been paid for advertisement but it is still a nice touch for fans of the game.