Carrie Underwood is an American country singer, songwriter. She was raised in a rural area, on a farm in Oklahoma. Her music reflects he rural upbringing, and she sings a lot about being isolated and alone, away from lots of people.
Her music is very emotional, and always has real meaning relating to her life experiences, making the audience relate to her as a person. Carrie Underwood has many similarities to our Artist, the genre of Country pop is identical to our genre. However, although there are similarities, Carrie Underwood's song are a lot more emotional, and our Artist tends to create more pop, up-beat songs, typically like Taylor swift.
Carrie Underwood's music videos often conform to the theories of the media theorist, Steve Archer. He states that music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song, which is demonstrated through the artist. In Carrie Underwoods song 'Blown Away' this theory is very evident.
In the first shot, the video has been edited through the use of black and white. This gives a solemn and melancholy feel to the initial shot, as well as creating a run-down, cold and musty image of the artists location in the video. This immediately sets the mood for the video. The diegetic sounds in the video, of Carrie Underwood pouring a glass of water, moving a chair and walking are exaggerated and emphasised to create tension and suspense. The initial shots in the music video reflect that of a film, linking with Steve Archer's theory of the Artist telling a story.
Once the initial first shots have finished setting the mood and scene of the video, it is evident to the audience that the video is telling a story of a girl and her father that do not get on, and clearly have emotional issues. Once the music starts being played, the editing of black and white changes to sepia, this could show the difference in the girl's mood, when she is singing on her own, and free from her father's control- the colour change could be an expression of her change in emotion. In the shot the camera captures the girl close up, from the side of her face. In doing this is captures her emotion and facial expressions, and focuses on her singing.
In this shot, the girl is captured outside, looking up at the sky. In the background you can see the clouds, and by using the editing technique of black and white, it makes the sky look gloomy and dark. The shot has religious connotations, as the girl is looking up at the sky- this could suggest she is in pain and is looking up in the sky to ask god for help. Her hair is blowing backwards, this also shows the windy weather, and makes the girl look as though she's 'fighting' against something, like she is desperate to achieve something, and her inner strength is being portrayed.
As soon as the girl in the video starts singing, she looks directly into the camera. This shows raw emotion, and shows her 'calling out' to whoever is watching-showing a degree of disparity. By singing into the camera, it reveals to the audience, she has a story to tell-linking to Steve Archer's theory. 
In this shot, the girl is captured outside, maybe in a woods-due to the trees and forest in the background. This links to the country genre, of nature and freedom. She is shot alone, walking around the trees singing to herself. Behind her there appears to be gravestones, this creates a somber and depressing atmosphere. In the shot she is singing to herself, as though she is in another world (a world of her own).
When the artist sings 'Daddy was a mean old Mr' in the video the camera cuts to her father inside peering through the blinds on the window. The shot is in black and white again, contrasting to the previous shot of the female alone outside. The lyrics are directly portrayed in the video, this links to Steve Archer's theory of the artists narrating a story and performing it to.
Again, when the artist sings 'Mamma was an angel in the ground' the camera cuts to the girl walking past a gravestone a stroking it. This shows the narrative relating to what is filmed in the video.
After carefully analysing Carrie Underwood's 'Blown Away' video, I have identified various techniques that would work well in our music video, and also techniques that wouldn't fit as well. Although there are many similarities in this Artist as there are in ours, there is also many differences. We will take all research into account while planning for our music video.
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