Bad Romance by Lady Gaga tells the brief story of her
becoming a ‘fame monster’ by developing a relationship with the music industry.
In this post I shall only be analysing the
first two minutes of the video. I will be looking at the micro-elements
within the product and analysing why these are effective in relaying the
message/meaning/metaphors of the song.

Next we see a series of panning establishing shots as a spotlight pours into a room which we later find out is the ‘Bath Haus’. These shots are accompanied with Gaga singing a long but soft note, non-diegetically. A close up shot is used of a one particular pod which has the words “monster” and a cross sprayed on it which further brands the video as hers. Crippled creatures are seen climbing out of these pods in a mixture of long and close up shots and we can hear the sharp words “Ra-ra, ra-ra-ra” sung in a mysterious, gothic manner. The background lighting is dim but just enough to see the contorted figures of the creatures with the rest of the shot in shadows. A contrast is seen between this scene and the following where we find Lady Gaga in a bath alone, in the main white room. This version of Gaga is depicted as innocent and wide eyed as she bathes herself. Due to other ecclesiastical symbolism used in the video, I believe this manner of bathing could be a religious reference to baptism, where the person being baptised is bless by a priest with holy water and is said to have been accepted into heaven and the faith by Jesus Christ and the Lord. This process is also known as cleansing. This further emphasises the feelings of innocence, purity and holiness. The juxtaposition of the two scenes means the audience automatically sympathises with her as opposed to the creatures. One more contrast is also made here as we see the artist singing to herself in the mirror wearing a tight black outfit, sunglasses and a crown. The over-the-shoulder camera angle presents Lady Gaga as she lists things she wants from her lover. These things are negative features such as ugliness, disease and drama which to some degree explain the dark, visually negative colour coding of the costume. Metaphorically speaking, the things she wants from her lover are traits she already has where the mirror is just a visual prop for the audience to recognise this connection. When the camera zooms out, we see her in a dominant and seductive pose with one leg up. This further emphasises that Gaga herself is what she wants.

The entirety of Bad Romance uses camera angles and mise-en-scene
to effectively emphasise or contrast the lyrics with editing acting as a
juxstapositonal tool to further this. There is lots of imagery in the video and
this is an element I would particularly like to toy when I create my own music
video.