SP - Deconstruction: Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song

Artist: Bruno Mars

Song: The Lazy Song
Genre: Reggae and Jawaiian influences, with elements of Pop and R&B.

Director: Nez
Year: 2011
Audience: 15-24

"The Lazy Song" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars from his debut studio album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. It was released as the third single from the album on February 15, 2011. Mars wrote the song with K'naan and his production team The Smeezingtons, who also produced the track. Musically, "The Lazy Song" displays influences of reggae and Hawaiian music. The song went to number one in the United Kingdom, becoming his fourth number one single in under a year in Great Britain after "Nothin' on You", "Just the Way You Are" and "Grenade". (Source: Wikipedia)

Bruno Mars' The Lazy Song is a mixture of both a performance based and a concept based music video. The performnce element features Bruno Mars lip-syncing the lyrics to the song. The majority of the music video is a concept based idea as there are alot of people dressed up as chimps.  Things that tell us that it is not a narrative music video and it is a concept idea is that there is no storyline. However the music video and the lyrics do fit in with what the actors are doing. It is a completely random idea that they have though of but the lyrics and the dncing do link with each other.

The Lazy Song is a facinating music video in may different ways. Firstly the whole video is one continuous and uninterrupted shot. There is no movement of the camera at all. In terms of do's and dont's only having one shot in a music video that lasts just over 3 minutes is definately not recommended. However it works really well in this case. The main jist of the music video is that Buno Mars is singing in a bedroom and the chimps in the background are dancing, goofing around and mimicking to the song's lyrics. The very first thing we see of this shot is just a black screen and a scuffling sound. We then see that Bruno Mars' hands have been covering the screen . As the setting is in a bedroom it is as if Bruno Mars is looking in to a webcam on a computer screen because it is one continuous shot.

As it is one uninterrupted shot Bruno Mars and the backing dancers had to do something original and they did. They do alot of their dancing in sync and it looks and works really well. For example, at the start of the music video everyone does a head movement that goes with the whistling tune of the song. Its not just dancing they exploit. Female gaze also comes in to play. Alot of women find Bruno Mars attractive and alot of his songs appeal to the female audience. At one stage in the music video some of the lyrics are "let everything hang loose" and Bruno Mars is just in his underwear. This would especially target a female audience and possibly make them watch the video more than once. Obviuosly it is not too explicit or anything but Bruno Mars is making the most of the fact alot of women like his music.

There are several problems with only having one shot in a music video and shot varaiton is an obvious obstacle. What Bruno Mars and the backing dancers dressed as chimps do is move around the room to change the type of shot. For example, at the very start Bruno Mars is sat on a chair and all of the chimps are surrounding him which is a mid close up shot. The picture on the left shows Bruno Mars and the chimps stood up doing a dance move and this time it is a long shot. This is how the got over the obstacle of shot variationcever though there is only one shot.


Another rather strange thing that happens in the music video is that one of the people who wrote the song randomly appears halfway through the song and the chimps dissapear. Philip Lawrence makes an appearance, uttering the line "Oh my God, this is great" before being driven off by the return of the chimps. Again, randomly he later reappears in the end.

Here is The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars