Music Video Analysis: Work From Home (Fifth Harmony)

'Work From Home' is is a song recorded by American girl group Fifth Harmony featuring rapper and singer Ty Dolla Sign. It was released on February 26, 2016, as the lead single from the group's second studio album, 7/27."Work from Home" was written by Joshua Coleman, Jude Demorest, Tyrone Griffin, Jr., Alexander Izquierdo, and Brian Lee. The song debuted at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 88,000 downloads sold, and reached number 4 in its thirteenth week quickly proving itself to be their highest charting single in the US so far, outstripping their previous single "Worth It", which peaked at number 12. "Work from Home" also became the first top-five single in the country by a girl group in ten years. And it has recently been announced that the single has sold 1.3 million copies in the United States and the music video (Directed by Director X) has now surpassed over 1 billion views on YouTube.

The Mise en Scene is fairly illustrative of the topic of the song which combines lexis related to sex and work, drawing implicit sexual references to the saying "work from home". The girl group (Fifth Harmony) are placed in a construction site type environment surrounded by building tools/equipment such as diggers, hammers and wheelbarrows and other such objects that are not usually associated with femininity and female sexuality. This creates a contradictory scene but the use of bright lighting in such a dark environment and the raw sense of grandeur of the house that seems to be being built throughout the video still manages to create a contrasting yet hyper-sexualised atmosphere. This is obviously helped by the attire that the artists are wearing that consists of of construction boots, tool belts, denim booty shorts/jeans and crop tops which creates a strong sense of female empowerment while also maintaining a sexual element that will draw in both male and female attention. 

The music artists are not the only actors to appear in the video however and we see a myriad of shirtless males appear in the frame throughout which helps to appeal to the female audience and makes the artist seem desirable. 

The music video is performance based, though shot in a very unconventional location, and features choreographed dancing and lip-syncing from the artists throughout. The artists often maintain eye contact with the camera whilst lip-syncing which helps to build a relationship, connection and sense of rapport with the audience and also creates a confident and independent image. The use of symmetry during more choreographed segments of the video where all of the group is present creates a unified and powerful image that denotes power and influence.

There are moments in the video when the shots are continuous (especially the beginning) but there are also frequent cuts to male faces and different angles that promotes that idea that they are being watched by many people. The moments of continuity in the shots are also very effective as it makes the video seem of a high production value both in terms of choreography and execution from the artists themselves. Points where slow motion is used, often when the artists engage with the males in the music video, creates tension and a sense of power coming from the women as we see how they affect the males they interact with. The video features shots where the artists are both depicted alone (lip-syncing their solo parts in the song) and all together painting them as strong women on their own and together as a group which is essential for the promotion of a girl group as people are drawn the unity and 'girl power' of the artists. 

Up angles and a variety of different levels are used when focusing on the artists reiterating the power that they have throughout the video and frequent uses of close ups during lip-sync moments shows the fierce expressions of the female artists and how the males react to them within the video. Long shots are used during choreographed and group moments gives the audience a wider view of the artist showing off both the choreography, their attire, the location and their skills as dancers.