Live Performance Research

To begin with the costume that Lorde is wearing in this live performance is a full black, conserved dress with heavily flared sleeves. The choice of costume rejects Laura Mulvey's theory of the Male Gaze as she suggests that women are represented to passively be an object of male desire. The colour of her costume connotes that she is dark and mysterious. This portrays her as being quite conserved within her and maybe shows the audience that the way she expresses herself is through her music. Furthermore, her costume contrasts with the various beaming lights behind her creating binary opposition of light and dark which corresponds with Levi Straus' theory. Following on from this her makeup shares similar coloring's to her costume as she is wearing a dark purple colour on her lips with dark eye makeup, this continues to add to that mysterious aspect she is conveying to the audience and conforms to the conventions and stereotypes of the alternative genre.









The performance consists of a variety of camera shots and movements, mostly being head and shoulder shots. As an artist she is extremely passionate when performing on stage and using head and shoulder shots and close up it allows up to view the emotion in a detail way in order for her to gain a relationship and closeness with her audience. The camera fades away to other shots such as low angle shots in order to establish her persona and domination of the performance and long shots which makes it easier for us to view her in one frame. Goodwin suggests the artist acts as the storyteller and through the different shots used within this example it adds to the 'story telling' aspect of the performance. By viewing Lorde from all angles in makes it easier for the viewers to identify with her and feel closer to her.

The setting of her live performance in a stage in which does not feature any props (besides stage lights), this means it is easier for people to focus upon her, engage with her more and not be distracted by other things going on in the performance. The fact that the stage is empty also suggests a lot about her character and her as an artist as it portrays her as being individualistic, being all about the music.

The overall lighting is extremely low key, however suggests binary opposition with the lights beaming over her at certain points of the performance, suggested by Straus showing us a fight between light and darkness. As we can convey that she is fighting the light is an all black costume it may be suggested that she is an extremely dark character fighting the good, portraying her in a slightly negative way. However, this means the audience will get to know her in more depth allowing them to relate to her more as an artist.