MUSICVID #4: Maroon 5 - Sugar

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INLUENCE:

• While I might want to use some shaky camera in order to connote the girl, urban dystopian setting I want to set up, this use of shaky camera might look if not done right like I actually wasn't holding the camera properly 
• Though that has given me an idea, could I maybe use the found footage genre as a way of giving it a gritty feel but also creating confusion, one of Barthes's 5 codes

The most watched music video by a band on YouTube (not a solo artist)

ACT: Maroon 5
TRACK: Sugar
ALBUM: V
YEAR: 2015
DIRECTOR: David Dobkin
GENRE: Disco, funk-pop, soul
LABEL: ...
SINGLE?: Yes, third.

BACKGROUND

• Maroon 5 are a pop rock band, formed in 1994, their lead singer is Adam Levine
• This was their third single, full album was released five months prior to Sugar's video
• Their last music video had proven quite controversial, where they had depicted Adam Levine playing a stalker who dreams of following his victim and culominated in a blood-soaked sexual act
• This video can be seen as reaffirming them with the Romance/Female Gaze image
• Video shows the band crashing multiple weddings in the city
• There is the not often adding of diegetic sounds throughout the whole video, including cars, people talking, screams of joy, but it is not constant.

LYRICS

SONGWRITERS: Mike Posner, 

Adam Levine, 

Joshua Coleman, 

Lukasz Gottwald,

                             Jacob Kasher Hindlin &

 

Henry Walter

I'm hurting, baby, I'm broken downI need your loving, lovingI need it nowWhen I'm without youI'm something weakYou got me begging, beggingI'm on my knees
[Pre-Chorus:]I don't wanna be needing your loveI just wanna be deep in your loveAnd it's killing me when you're away, ooh, baby,'Cause I really don't care where you areI just wanna be there where you areAnd I gotta get one little taste
[Chorus:]Your sugarYes, pleaseWon't you come and put it down on me?I'm right here, 'cause I needLittle love, a little sympathyYeah, you show me good lovingMake it alrightNeed a little sweetness in my lifeYour sugarYes, pleaseWon't you come and put it down on me?
My broken piecesYou pick them upDon't leave me hanging, hangingCome give me someWhen I'm without yaI'm so insecureYou are the one thing, one thingI'm living for 

[Pre-Chorus:]I don't wanna be needing your loveI just wanna be deep in your loveAnd it's killing me when you're away, ooh, baby,'Cause I really don't care where you areI just wanna be there where you areAnd I gotta get one little taste 

[Chorus:]Your sugarYes, pleaseWon't you come and put it down on me?I'm right here,'Cause I needLittle love, a little sympathyYeah, you show me good lovingMake it alrightNeed a little sweetness in my lifeYour sugar! (sugar!)Yes, please (yes, please)Won't you come and put it down on me?
YeahI want that red velvetI want that sugar sweetDon't let nobody touch itUnless that somebody's meI gotta be your manThere ain't no other way'Cause girl you're hotter than a southern California day
I don't wanna play no gamesYou don't gotta be afraidDon't give me all that shy shitNo make-up onThat's my 

[Chorus:]SugarYes, please (please)Won't you come and put it down on me (down on me)?I'm right here (right here), 'cause I need ('cause I need)Little love, a little sympathySo, baby, (yeah) you show me good lovingMake it alrightNeed a little sweetness in my lifeYour sugar! (sugar!)Yes, please (yes, please)Won't you come and put it down on me? 

[Chorus:]SugarYes, pleaseWon't you come and put it down on me?I'm right here, 'cause I needLittle love, a little sympathyYeah, you show me good lovingMake it alrightNeed a little sweetness in my life
Your sugar! (sugar!)Yes, please (yes, please)Won't you come and put it down on me? (down on me, down on me)

"I got a be a man" - reinforcing masculine stereotype.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Start with an establishing shot of a house, the car and the entrance have been marked important due to the Rule Of Thirds. There is immediately a diegetic intro of church bells. We cut to a side shot of the band members coming out (the images aren't edited to the church bells).

After 10 seconds Lavine magically appears (Rule of Thirds also applied). This is another subtle way of preparing the entrance of the lead singer, strongly connoting that although bands are supposed to be a democratic structure, logically the voice of the group is the leading image. Shaky camera, connotes the "realness" of this video .

At 0'26 the track starts playing as we cut to the first hotel (anchored through the lettering) the band are arriving at as the camera tilts down to reveal their cars driving in.

They crash multiple weddings

Chinese wedding included gives it a more "multicultural" representation.