Music Video Analysis - Sia: Chandelier / Elastic Heart (Richard Dyer)

In reference to Richard Dyer's theory of Star Image, the artist is a icon manufactured by institutions for finanical gain, evoking emotion from audiences, through reflecting 'real people experiences' creating fans to sell too. When using Dyer's theory we are able to apply this to exsisting artist, and bands. Many artist identities are not bound to their music, branching out to other factors such as films, adverts, perfumes and so forth- therefore selling themselves as a product rather than the music. However the artist Sia as recently proven to audiences that this is subjective and does not apply to all. Sia is known for her absences in her music videos as well as her live performances. Her recent conversional yet record breaking music videos hit, 'Chandelier' and 'Elastic Heart' help challenge Dyer's theory of Star Image. The music videos do not conform to the stereotypical music video as the artist is absent, there is not singing performance and is not set in various locations. The video is focused on the young dancer, who is performaing a dance to the beat of the song helping convey the emotions, creating link between the lyrics and visuals.

The music video elastic heart is a sequel to the hit 'Chandelier'. This is made clear to the audience as there is a consistency in the tone of miss en scene, the colour scheme is melancholic, keeping to the colours of different shades of dark greys and cremes, mimicking an industrial vibe. The protagonist of the video is wearing the same flesh coloured leotard paired with blonde bob wig. The main element of dance is constant through both videos. Long camera shots are use to reflect the emotions of the dancers in both video. The videos are not edited to the most prominent beat, which is clear to audience which is typically done in music videos, however this is consistent through the video and therefore does not look out of place yet adds to the emotion of the dancers, highlighting the dancing as the main feature, which helps emphasis the song as it is a reflection of the lyrics, through  the link that the dance made with the visuals. 

Here is the music video along with other links I found helpful when researching into this topic: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2916310/I-cry-watching-kid-doing-kind-choreography-Sia-talks-controversial-music-video-Elastic-Heart-includes-Maddie-Ziegler-12-actor-Shia-LaBeouf.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/sia-apologizes-for-controversial-elastic-heart-video-with-shia-labeouf-20150108

These videos are revolutionary as there has never been sequel music videos, which rises the question are music videos slowly becoming short films?