Red Dress song: Divisive pop video 'did what it set out to do'

Sarah Brand's video has had more than a half a million views and caused a lot of head scratching

A student whose pop video has garnered thousands of critical comments online says she has accomplished what she set out to do.

Sarah Brand's song Red Dress has more than half a million hits on YouTube, but much of the feedback has centred on making fun of the track or debating whether it is an elaborate hoax.

She said her work was a "cinematic, holistic portrayal of judgement".

Ms Brand is doing a master's degree in sociology at Oxford University.

The elaborate video to Red Dress was filmed at a church in Oxford with a host of actors and extras.

Ms Brand, who is originally from Los Angeles, directed it herself and plays the role of two women, one in a white dress and another who crashes proceedings in a red dress.

She admitted to the BBC that she is "no professional singer".

She added: "The style in which I sing the song was important because it reflected the story.

"The vocals don't seem to quite fit, they seem out of place and they make people uncomfortable... and the video is this outsider doing things differently and causing discomfort and eliciting all this judgement."

Ms Brand is doing a master's degree in sociology at Oxford University

The A.V. club said the video invited a "kind of car wreck curiosity", while Newsweek debated whether it was part of a "grand social experiment" .

One YouTube commenter wrote: "She is actually hitting all the notes... only of other songs. And at random."

Ms Brand said she was more interested in writing and directing than singing, but had been "impressed" by "some very, very witty comments".

"There's that side of it with humorous feedback and there is also the other side that is judgemental behaviour and that is part of what this project deals with overall as a central theme.

"Judgemental behaviour does hurt the world and that is what I'm trying to bring to light with this project."

Ms Brand said she had been "impressed" by "some very, very witty comments"

One of the actors in the video was Tristan Robinson, whose shocked expressions have even become memes, which he said made him feel a "mixture of both shock and awe".

The 28-year-old said: "You have to give her credit for putting her heart and soul into it.

"I'm not really a musician so I can't judge her for what she wanted to do if that's her passion."

Ms Brand wrote Red Dress but used session musicians on the finished product. She has not confirmed if the song and video were connected to her coursework.