Thursday 20 June 2013

Music Video Analysis- BEP & The Streets

Where is the Love? - The Black Eyes Peas

+The Black Eyed Peas, Where is the Love?, is a unforgettable song and music video, initially released in early 2002. The music video is accompanied by an Hip Hop/ R&B styled song, and the video was directed by Will.I.Am, a quarter of the Black Eyed Peas.
+ The main message of this song is about how war, racism and terrorism that is affecting our world. It brings over the message of bombing, terrorism, discriminations and the type of values that we are not showing the youth of today.
+ Shot in Los Angeles, the video itself features the whole of the Black Eyed Peas, and many young children and 'general public' of L.A who are getting shown and explained to, about the message the Black Eyed Peas want to bring across.
+Throughout the music video, there is similar representations of all different ethnicities, in a range of different ages. Such as Black, White, Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic and Latino.
+ The possible audiences of this music video can be split into two categories. Firstly it could attract the younger audiences (age 12-30) as the band is popular with mostly teenagers and young adults, as the Black Eyed Peas are quite youthful and understand the R&B genre. Which the audience can then relate to them, but the older audience may not as much. Secondly the audiences can be from all different racial backgrounds as the overall message of the video is to make everyone aware of issues involved with racism.
+ The first camera shot are hooded youths are seen frantically running around East L.A dressed in black, head to toe running from police cars. We then see them illegally putting up and handing out a symbol of a question mark and stickers around the most popular areas in the city.
+There is a negative stereotype on the black community in the first part of the music video which along with the mise en scene adds to the negative portrayal.
+The clothing choice is usually associated with criminals and have intentions, due to the hood have intentions of committing serious crimes. Although they are just spreading the "?" for an overall positive cause, although to the law it is still criminal; It is not badly crime related.
+ Due to the negative stereotype on the black community it initially comes across to the audience that the other races are more innocent, when is it known this is not the case, just a negative stereotype. A bad stereotype of youths in general are additionally shown in this music video.
+ The police officers arresting a member of the Black Eyed Peas, is white,which can be portrayed as the white race being more heroic and following the law.
+ Fortunately the message the Black Eyed Peas are trying to bring across in all this is that we should all live in one world and respect each other, this is supported when we see and feel sorry for a man from the black community shown looking up at the sky, most probably to God, asking for guidence and asking 'Where is the Love?'. During this clip the camera angle is low, which initially makes him look more powerful to us and possibly indicating that times are changing.
+ The graffiti on the wall in one scene reads the phrase, 'We are not a minority'; a minority being an ethic group of people that only find recognition with people of the same race. This suggests that the people from different races shouldn't be isolated from each other.
+ The technical codes used such as the long camera shots for this particular scene is effective as it allows the audience to see Will.I.Am, an additionally black member of the group standing in front of the graffiti suggesting that this is the race that has fallen victim to racism in society the most.
+ The man's pose on the graffiti resembles Lord Kitchener in the famous " You're country needs you" posters; this well known and powerful pose signifies that Black people are also an important part of society, it helps the representation of them become more positive and reinforces the message behind the whole music video, that black and white should be treated equally.
+ The involvement and close up of the generations, especially the children adds to the message that if the social issues do not change, such a racism then it will effect the next generation. The older female at the end shows that she would like to see a change, since living like this.



Fit but you know it - The Streets

+ At the start the main singer of The Streets, Skinner, goes into a photo printing shop and pays for his holiday photos. When handed to him, these photos become the central point of the video.
+ The artists video are based on normal, personal life and this help the artist to make himself to appear 'an ordinary person' like his audience, which  in turn helps him to form a connection with them and thus boost his popularity and sales.
+ The genre of the product is a mixture of rap, garage and techno sounds. These are some of the genres The Streets very often use in their songs.
+ There is a small introduction which helps to communicate the storyline to the audience so they have an understanding which helps make the storyline flow.
+ Throughout the video there is a dual narrative, as the moving photographs held in Skinners hand's shows the rowdy antics of his holiday, whilst the camera still shows Skinner walking through the streets in present day.
+The location is an 'ordinary', everyday location. The use of the location helps reflect The Streets image as they are a typical 'London', British band. This can also relate to the audience as they go to these everyday locations themselves helping to build up a relationship with the artist and his music.
+ The camera work used in this music video, is well done and has a mixture of shots. The use of the long shots whilst panning helps set the scene. Whereas medium shots showing his face when he raps/sings shows he emotion on his face, for example at one point Skinner is angry at an image. The final most used shot was a "point of view" shot. This is used to show the audience what the character was looking at, in the video he is looking at photographs, making us look at them.
+ Editing is mainly used on the photographs he has in his hands. They hare images that start moving and sing along to the song.
+ Diagetic sound is used in the cars driving past, the doorbell ringing and the till opening. But the actual voice over/narrative is diagetic, as the singer is acting but is aware of the music.
+ The Streets attire is very casual and working class looking, this links in with the genre of music and target audience and this is predominately young, male working class music and so the artist dresses this way as a way of fitting in a communicating effectively with his audience.Costume used is casual everyday wear in grey-ish  sort of colours, in contrast with the bright holiday in the photographs.
+ The target audience is wider due to it's humour.
+ The representation of women in this music video is that of them being a floozy, and not being as true to herself and discreet as she can be.
+ The overall style of the video is light hearted, with comedy moments and the clever device of the moving photographs in Skinner's hands make it an interesting watch.

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