Textual Analysis of Ed Sheeran

Genre - The genre of this piece is singer songwriter, this very clear as it has a main focus upon a clear narrative like many singer songwriter music videos. It could also be classified as pop due to the high budget gone into the music video, with her wings and effects used such as the sepia effect. However it goes against both genres in the fact that the artist is very low key in the music video whereas they usually feature quite clearly however in this he only features shortly in the diner.

Narrative - The narrative of this piece is about a girl who is essentially the God of love cupid in Greek mythology and she is running round all these places making people fall in love with each other where all she wants is love herself and the arrow stabbed in her neck connotes that she is dying without love and she needs someone and the final uplifting moment at the end where she falls in love with the police officer coming to inspect her body and she comes back alive to fall in love with him.

Representation -  As general connotations go females are definitely the more dominant characters in this piece as we see the female protagonist in most shots causing happiness to other people and her being the main character causing her to be the most dominant. Homosexuality is represented in a positive way as in the piece they connote men and women in love with each other going against the stereotype of a comical character and instead being the main love in this piece, as we see both and male and a female kissing the same sex. We also see ethnicity shown in a positive light instead of its danger stereotype and in this piece we see a black male being kissed by a white female showing that interracial relationships are normal as well.

Visual Codes -Like said before the arrow stabbed in her neck connotes she is dying of love. Her wings represent that not only is she the God of love in this piece but sometimes women are described as "angels" and this is how they are representing her due to the wings connoting she is an "angel" however she is all alone without anyone to love. Also we see people kissing in a night club connoting that love can also occur in these places.

Audience - The audience to this piece are adults, this can range in age however, as it is dominated by 20-25 year olds however we do see other array of ages such as the two 30 year olds kissing and falling in love, this is to show love is universal. However no younger children or teens are shown so this could just mean that they are not the target audience for this video.

Institution - The institution is a very high budget company, this is quite obvious because the effects and shots used are very technical and high budget and the wings must have been a lot to make and the camera itself is a very high quality camera, this is probably due to his pop genre status, so the high budget keeps it in pop and attracts passive audiences and also actives due to all the hidden codes and connotations.