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.