Ke$ha – Your Love Is My Drug This video came out in readiness for summer 2010, just after her huge hit with new band 3OH!3 “blah blah blah” which went straight to number one. Ke$ha as an individual artist is known for her ‘wild’ image, with an almost influence from 1960’s ‘hippies’ which she bases her style icon on. Her fashion style always has a sense of freedom and almost uncaring with what she wears, with it either being neutral colours with an earthly aspect or bright stereotypical ‘rave’ colours. This style builds upon her image as she is a new artist and also attracts her target audience of teenagers aged 14 and above. Within the video for ‘Your love is my Drug’ Ke$ha has based the video around her new found style icon, with the setting being based in a desert with wild animals, she has face paint across her checks and apart from that she is wearing basic neutral clothing all very summery, indicating that she wants it to be a summer anthem. This idea indicates that she is an independent solo artist, and the wild characterisation between her and animals show a stereotype of a teenager which helps to attract her audience. The influences from the 1960’s also link to the title of the song ‘Your love is my Drug’, with the rise of drug culture entering teenagers lives for the first major time in the 1960’s along with lots of peace movements and the spread of ‘free love’ which could be interpretated from her music video through the emphasis of her falling in love and it being all a happy almost surreal feeling. The lighting helps to re-enforce the idea of the song being a summer anthem, with it all being natural lighting and bright blue sunny skies, this helps to portray the setting and also helps to show the genre of the song as being pop/dance which is always happy, upbeat with a fun out going aspect to them. The majority of the camera work is close up, or mid shots of the artist singing, another man is featured within the video that she is suppose to be in love with to help portray the story of the song, however the focus of the camera work is on Kesha. This can also be seen through certain long shots and wide shots when she is in the middle of the camera shot and the man is on the side just in view. While she sings she makes a lot of direct eye contact with the camera as though singing to the audience, this makes her song more engaging and easily accessible to a wide audience of both males and females. During the chorus, for the main line of the song ‘Your love is my drug’ the editing used is to show the same image but in multiple circles spinning around, as though actually being effected by drugs. This technique is a simple way of attracting and targeting a younger audience who may not completely understand the ideas of why this happens but are attracting to the difference of the video.

The camera movements seem to be created using a handheld camera so that the shots are not focused and are jerkier to help with the interaction between the audience and the artist making them feel absorbed into the idea of being part of the action because the movement is more realistic. There are also cartoons added into the video editing to help illustrate the actions or reinforce the lyrics. The use of these animated pictures that pop up occasionally throughout the video show the artists younger, fun side that helps to attract her audience, also it related to the idea that she is crazy in love, and helps with this surreal atmosphere she is trying to create through the video. The majority of the shots (mid shots, wide shots, long shots and close ups) used within the video are focused around the artist this is done for two main reasons, the first; so that the audience become aware that she is the main artist and familiar with her face and features of her music making it easier to identify her next work and gathering a core audience. The other being to interact directly with the audience making them feel special as though the song is being song towards them, this direct communication between the audience and the artist is a popular way of directly involving the audience making them want to see more and aspire to be what they see. This again helps to attract a core audience and promote her as an artist. The music video was created to portray Ke$ha as a young, fun pop artist and the idea of her being in the middle of no-where with a man and wild animals helps to indicate these ideas. She is also advertising the idea of romance, which can equally interest a younger audience as well as older. I think this music video is very different from other ones being released with its use of cartoon as well as reality, making it seem as though she is living within her dream world. I also like the shots that help to show the female artist as a dominating powerful artist and that she is the main feature within the song simply by her being in the centre of the shots or being the main person in focus. These simple adjustments seem to work effectively in promoting the artist especially as this was her second song to be released from the album.