Fantasy is subjective, fantasy is down to our own unique perception. What is realism and what isn't is hard to define but the relationship and the fluctuations that can occur, the intertwining webs they weave throughout plot lines can be extrapolated and explored. For this essay I'm going to scrutinize the relationship between the music video's 'Born this way' by Lady GaGa and 'Take on me' by A-ha. The reason I have chosen both videos, is firstly not just because of their popularity but for their own significant usage of fantasy and fantasy related semiotics and iconography. Both videos are incredibly infamous for their displays of other worldly activity and their cultural impact, 'Take on me' is one of the most iconic music videos of all time and being released in 1986 it still manages to hold up to 64 million views on youtube today. 'Born this way' comes from an artist who's videos not only challenge the normal and cliche' video's that feature prominently on music television services, like MTV and Viva, but almost every other aspect of GaGa's image does so much to explore the fantasy elements of being. The videos I have selected offer me a broad range of talking points and issues that will help me analyze the ever deepening relationship between what we know as fantasy and the real in music videos.
In order to create a stronger sense of structure to my essay, I'm going to open by placing each video amongst Todorov's spectrum of fantasy and see if we can define each video by its characteristics and where its summation places. To briefly explain, Todorov's spectrum comprises of three main categories, which allegedly you can place any fantasy item amongst. The Uncanny represents the supernatural but that of which can be explained with the natural laws of the world continuing to be obeyed. The Fantastic which is a kind of unknowing, a hesitation on the audiences behalf, and subjective to the differing supernatural activities that partake, and finally the Marvelous.