Genre Characteristics
The first image we get is of a fence and barbed wire indicating a prison of some kind which isn't in the usual pop video. Lady Gaga's video also defies the genre with the violence, the constant swearing and the nudity (half-naked women in prison cells). There is also a whole scene of Lady Gaga and Beyonce murdering a group of people in a diner with poison. However, the video does have an emphasis on craftmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities, like that of another genre video i.e. Britpop, alternative, rock etc. The video also has an emphasis on recording, production and technology rather than live performance like many alternative bands do in their music videos. Gaga's video can be compared to other pop music videos as much pop music is intended to encourage dancing, or it uses dance-oriented beats or rhythms, which is what her video does as it includes a lot of dancing that can be copied by viewers.
Lyrics and Visuals
The lyrics start with, "Hello, hello baby you called I can't hear a thing..." just as Lady Gaga answers the phone in prison with a crowd behind her who are making a lot of noise and she puts her finger in her ear.
Music and Visuals
When the music became jerky in places, almost robotic, so did either Lady Gaga or Beyonce. Only one of the body parts would move as if it was multiple pictures and they were moving in each one but for example, only their head moved when everything else stayed the same.
Demands of the record label
Lady Gaga was in nearly every shot even though she was already an established artist at the time. Beyonce isn't in it half as much as Lady Gaga because she is only featuring in the song. Also, there were many close-up shots of Lady Gaga even though the song was fast paced meaning we didn't need to feel intimate with her.
Notion of looking
There was often the shot of looking through a CCTV camera in the prison at Lady Gaga arriving and dancing showing the viewer what the security would see. We also see shots of Lady Gaga through the prison bars.
Intertextual References
The titles at the start of the music video are like that of a film, expecially with the font and words like 'starring', there are also credits at the end like you would see at the end of the film. There were rumours in the news at the start of Lady Gaga's career that she was actually a man and in this video the security guards chuck her in her prison cell and take off her clothes, when they leave they say, "Told you she didn't have a d**k". A couple of times Lady Gaga holds a mobile phone which on the screen has the logo of virgin mobile on it. There is also a shot of the security guard logging into a dating website. Lady Gaga is shown with Diet Coke cans styled into her hair. They make a reference to the film 'Kill Bill' with the 'Pussy Wagon' that they drive in. Lady Gaga also takes pictures of Beyonce driving using a polaroid camera.
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