Music Video Analysis - 'Goodlife' by Kanye West

'Goodlife' by Kanye West



Artist: Kanye West

Song Title: Goodlife

Director: 

Year released:

Camera Angles and Editing:

One thing that is apparent throughout the video is the way that the rappers, Kanye West and T Pain are always shown in black and white,but the rest of the video are in colour cartoons. To me, this shows that   the music video has been made to shown in a non naturalistic sort of way for an audience to enjoy and not take to seriously. The image below shows a close up of Kanye's face, but with a cartoon version of a woman in underwear in the background. From looking at many RnB music videos I found that the appearance of good looking females is a popular convention, but by presenting them as cartoons is shows that it is almost as if men can only fantasise about women like this. The way the most of this shot is taken up by the cartoon 'fantasy' side of the video shows that people are more interested in fantasy rather than real life. 

One thing I like about the image below is the way the use of a long shot here really supports the words to song song. One repetitive line in the song is 'Throw your hands up in the sky' and each time this is mentioned a different image of hands is shown. This seems to be really effective for the promotion of the song as when an audience watches it will be an easy way for the to remember it - it gives it a personal motif for an audience to recognise. 

Many hip hop/RnB videos are very much focused on dancing, and appears to be a typical convention. The long shot below commonly occurs throughout the song, showing both rappers dancing. This helps to make the song more appealing as many people watching the video would see the rappers as role models. By making an up tempo song it would mean promotion in clubs, targeting a young audience who would be going to these clubs to hear it.  The easier it is for the song to be played and promoted the more successful the song as a whole will be. 

The image below shows a number of Kanye's own albums being surrounded by him in a 'halo-like' formation. Its almost as if Kanye is using this opportunity to promote his album - if people like this song they are bound to want to buy the album. The Teddy bear featured on the front of the album is a common motif associated with Kanye West himself so this is almost the way of Kanye giving his personal signature to the song. In this medium shot Kanye is pointing towards the camera, almost giving a direct point to the person/people watching that they should go out and buy the album. 

Editing has been used really effectively throughout the whole of this video, because although their is no specific location as the cartoon image keeps changing, the images have still been made clear to set the scene, therefore the audience is aware of all the different locations that are associated with the song. In this medium shot below it shows Kanye looking up with his mouth wide open in awe with the famous 'Hollywood sign' in the background. This one again adds to the theme of 'fantasy', as its almost as if he is looking up dreaming of all these amazing things. All of these things put together link in to the idea of a 'Goodlife'. I really like the image below showing a big stack of money, as Kanye appears really small and worthless next to this big bold stack of money. Therefore, this gives an underlying message to the video that money is more important than anything, also shown by the long shot of the huge shiny gold car that Kanye is sat on. 

It is clear that this video has been filmed in a completly blank from with animations added over the top. I really like the way they have done this as it allows an audience to create their own locations in the head, and think filming in an empty space with a plain background will be really effective. It adds that sense of mystery into the video, and seeing as we want to challenge the normal conventions of Hip Hop videos, adding our own mysterious twists will allow us to challenge them well. 



Music Video Analysis - 'Lollipop' by Lil Wayne

'Lollipop' by Lil Wayne

Artist: Lil Wayne

Song Title: Lollipop

Director:

Year Release











camera angles and editing :

In lil Wayne's music video to 'lollipop', there are a huge amount of things involved that make it stereotypically follow the conventions of an RnB/ Hip Hop video. This over the shoulder medium shot of Wayne looking in this big, grand, gold mirror shows highlights the convention that in the videos these people are very obsessed with their appearance.  This shot is also effective as it clearly highlights the 'lollipops' that are clearly a main motif of the video as the song is based on them. This image also shows a sense of irony, as Wayne appears to look innocent, almost childlike. However the whole idea of this song is far from innocent. 

One shot that I particularly like was the establishing shot at the very beginning of the video. This shows a busy city, with extravagant tall buildings with colour bright lights everywhere. This is conventional location of an RnB video as they are usually located in big lively city's to make the video look even more exciting and appealing.  The great thing about using this establishing shot is that it helps to set an overall theme to the video as a whole. From this powerful image we are able to quickly realise that the whole video is going to be lively, and will probably be suitable for an audience to dance too. The editing technique of 'panning' has been used here to pan across the whole city and quite a fast pace. Moving quickly across the city sets a fast tempo right from the beginning of the song. It also shows the great locations that accompany these Rappers lifestyles, and are shown to give an audience that 'wow' factor. 

The image below shows a  long shot of a particularly impressive car, once again surrounded by these intriguing bright lights. The car, however, has been put in the shadows of the image, and appears very dark. The effective thing about using this dark lighting is that even though the car isn't big and bright, making it stand out, it still manages to jump out of the screen at the audience. This therefore shows that the things these big rappers own are so impressive they don't need to be constantly but in the spot light - they still stand out over these huge flashing lights. This shot of the car has been edited to make it slow down. The effectiveness of this is that it gives an audience time to fully take in the beauty and amazement that is presented with the car, in a way trying to make people envious of the people in this video. This also engages people to watch more of the video, as after seeing the impressive location and car, they want to see what else that video has to bring. 

Another place where the editing technique of slow motion has been used to when women are walking out of the car. The women are barely wearing any clothes - following the convention of provocative women. The use of slowing down this clip has been used to show the way mens minds work - suggesting that the men want this image to last forever and want a longer time to look at it. 

The shot below also follows the convention of provocative women, highlighting the fact that this is one of the main things that men thing about. By showing this medium shot of a pretty women with a lot of flesh showing it helps to target a male audience, as this is what they want to see. However, this could also target a female audience as they see men appreciating what these women look like, so maybe they want to copy it. 

Mise en scene:

In the long shot above, we can see how the director has specially to put the two men in posh suits. These costumes are also seen in RnB videos as a way to emphasise once again the rich lifestyle in which these  celebrities have. However the two men seem to just be an added feature to show how rich they are, as clearly the main feature is the high ceilings and stone work in what appears to be a mansion. 

cards showing lil wayne as 'best rapper'- make an audience want to watch him

showing alchol contrasts with the innocene of the lollipops.

Sound:

One thing that differentiates RnB/Hip Hop music from other genres of music is the use of voice. Pop music includes music very much based vocally on singing. However RnB music is different as the voice is presented in the form of rap, just as is done in this video by lil Wayne. 

Another feature that is effective of this video is the way that Wayne's voice has been auto tuned to make the pitches of different, making the song overall sound a lot more interesting! The auto tune has been used by many Hip Hop artists such as T Pain in Kanye West, and these songs have ended up being top sellers, showing the maybe the audience has a particular interest in Auto tune. 

Throughout this song there is a repetitive beeping noise that becomes a sort of motif of the song as a whole. The importance of having these different, repetitive beats/ sounds in a song is that people grow to establish these sounds with the songs, making them more memorable and in the long run, more popular. 

One of the main things that I want to include from this video is the idea of female dancers. Watching a variety of videos has shown that it is a key convention of a hip hop video. The one thing that I want to change from this is the way the women appear. I dont want them to appear so provocative as in this video, yet I still want them to stand out. I am yet to decide how I will be doing this.