Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Friday, 8 October 2010
Research- The True Plan B
Benjamin Paul Ballance Drew was born 22nd October 1983, little did he know that in 2010 he would be releasing an album called the Defamation of Strickland Banks which would reach number 1 in the UK album charts. Plan B grew up in Forest Gate with his mother and brother, growing up Plan B felt outcast from the rest of school pupils, Plan B taught himself how to play the guitar at 14, he had an interest in R&B and wrote and sang music of this genre but never felt comfortable to sing so he decided to launch in the direction of rap and hip-hop. B featured in songs by Roll Deep but finally released his his first album in 2006 'Who Needs Actions When You've Got Words'. The next year he featured with talents such Professor Green. Over the next couple of years he transitioned through the ranks of the UK charts with various releases but finally lead and meet his potential in 2010 with the release of Strickland Banks which completed his transition from hip-hop to R&B/ soul. Plan B was interviewed by USA Today and said "The whole reason for calling myself Plan B was that I was doing this sweet-boy Justin Timberlake [stuff], but I never felt comfortable... When I started rapping, it was easier for me to feel comfortable." The target audience for Plan B is R&B.
Presentation- The Vision
Within this video we present and explored our idea with our class, giving a short extract from the original video for End credits by Plan B ft Chase & Status. As stated in our presentation we picked this song as it offered us the opportunity to use the transitional nature of the song in both the lyrics and beat of the song. We conveyed our ideas and gave the sense of direction we want to go in with the song and narrative, incorporating the influences from the original video.
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Music Video Analysis
Mrs Officer - Lil Wayne
Mrs. Officer, a song by popular hip hop artist Lil Wayne is about a man meeting a very sexy woman that happens to be a cop and all of the things that this man does to this woman in a sexual way. The man and woman are playing a cop and robber type of game, but the woman is actually a cop. Lil Wayne is a long standing hip hop artist that is now starting to take over the hip hop charts, having many songs at number one. Hip hop is a type of music developed in the Bronx, in New York City in the 1970’s predominately among African Americans and Latinos (Wikipedia). It started off very popular in the urban and street lives of people all over.
This hip hop song is “rapped” by Lil Wayne and has a rhythm and blues section sung by Bobby Valentino. Rap stems from poetry and is a way that artists do not sing, but poetically state what they are trying to get out in the song. It is said as if someone is reciting poetry with a beat in the background that usually speeds up the words and provides a catchy tune for the audience. Bobby Valentino sings the chorus and adds flow to the song that catches people’s attention. The beat in the background slows to a more soulful beat, and speeds back up with harder and faster beats when Lil Wayne comes back in to rap. The video of this song is depicting an officer that pulls a man over for speeding. This officer is played by sex symbol type of woman. She is dressed in provocative cop clothing and proceeds to be sexual and flirtatious with this suspect.
Mrs. Officer, a song by popular hip hop artist Lil Wayne is about a man meeting a very sexy woman that happens to be a cop and all of the things that this man does to this woman in a sexual way. The man and woman are playing a cop and robber type of game, but the woman is actually a cop. Lil Wayne is a long standing hip hop artist that is now starting to take over the hip hop charts, having many songs at number one. Hip hop is a type of music developed in the Bronx, in New York City in the 1970’s predominately among African Americans and Latinos (Wikipedia). It started off very popular in the urban and street lives of people all over.
This hip hop song is “rapped” by Lil Wayne and has a rhythm and blues section sung by Bobby Valentino. Rap stems from poetry and is a way that artists do not sing, but poetically state what they are trying to get out in the song. It is said as if someone is reciting poetry with a beat in the background that usually speeds up the words and provides a catchy tune for the audience. Bobby Valentino sings the chorus and adds flow to the song that catches people’s attention. The beat in the background slows to a more soulful beat, and speeds back up with harder and faster beats when Lil Wayne comes back in to rap. The video of this song is depicting an officer that pulls a man over for speeding. This officer is played by sex symbol type of woman. She is dressed in provocative cop clothing and proceeds to be sexual and flirtatious with this suspect.
Music \video Analysis
99 Problems - Jay Z
Both Jay-Z’s third single album “99 Problems” and its corresponding music video were released in 2004. Although Jay-Z is known today as a famous rapper and a producer of Roc-A-Fella record label, he did not start off with the most fortunate setting. The music video portrays the ghetto of Brooklyn, New York in the 1990s and illustrates the struggles that Jay-Z had to go through during his career in order to reach the top of the music industry. This hip-hop music video won “three MVPA awards in 2005, MTV Video Music Awards, Video of the Year, and the Best Male Video” (Wikipedia).
Primary Audience
The primary audience for this music video is African American males. The second verse of the music video shows Jay-Z getting pulled over by a Caucasian policeman for something coming out from a discriminating heart—he gets pulled over for driving fifty-five miles per hour in a fifty-four mph zone.
Feeling discriminated, Jay-Z raps aboutwhat happened and shows that this incident is just one of the many incidents of which him and his race deal with in their daily lives. Driving one mile over the speed limit is something that police would believe is not worth wasting time or effort to pull one over. However, because Jay-Z is from African decent, it is implied that Caucasians do not feel safe about African Americans driving around the streets—Caucasians may believe that African Americans are dangerous, criminals, and/or a possible threat to the community.
Both Jay-Z’s third single album “99 Problems” and its corresponding music video were released in 2004. Although Jay-Z is known today as a famous rapper and a producer of Roc-A-Fella record label, he did not start off with the most fortunate setting. The music video portrays the ghetto of Brooklyn, New York in the 1990s and illustrates the struggles that Jay-Z had to go through during his career in order to reach the top of the music industry. This hip-hop music video won “three MVPA awards in 2005, MTV Video Music Awards, Video of the Year, and the Best Male Video” (Wikipedia).
Primary Audience
The primary audience for this music video is African American males. The second verse of the music video shows Jay-Z getting pulled over by a Caucasian policeman for something coming out from a discriminating heart—he gets pulled over for driving fifty-five miles per hour in a fifty-four mph zone.
Feeling discriminated, Jay-Z raps aboutwhat happened and shows that this incident is just one of the many incidents of which him and his race deal with in their daily lives. Driving one mile over the speed limit is something that police would believe is not worth wasting time or effort to pull one over. However, because Jay-Z is from African decent, it is implied that Caucasians do not feel safe about African Americans driving around the streets—Caucasians may believe that African Americans are dangerous, criminals, and/or a possible threat to the community.
Friday, 1 October 2010
I Love The Way You Lie- Eminem ft Rihanna
Music videos generally always tend to feature the artist or band, it is common and expected to see an appearance of the artist/band in their own video and this is a way of promoting the song and themselves. This convention is used in this music video showing both Eminem and Rihanna.
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| Eminem |
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| Rihanna |
The use of lip syncing is used when a crucial aspect of the video's narrative is shown in the case below shown below she is leaving him "Wait where you going?" "I'm leaving you" "No you ain't".
The use of narrative is effective as it justifies the lyrics and portrays the song in the viewpoint wanted by the artist in effect reinforcing the genre. The narrative has been used to explore the title of the song 'I love the way you lie', and shows a relationship between Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan and the effects which lieing has on them.
The use of celebrities draws the attention of a wider spread audience expanding them from just a specific audience. In this video the use of Megan Fox a current actress and the feature of Dominic Monaghan bring a sense of quality to music video and makes the portrayal of narrative cinematic.
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| Megan Fox |
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| Dominic Monaghan |
The use of colour a common feature of music videos is effective as it reinforces the mood of the music video. Rihanna's hair is the colour red showing the danger in the narrative.
The use of props used in the music videos can be used to support the lyrics and signify something related to the artist/band such as Jay-z uses the hand sign of a triangle. The use of fire is used to show the danger of love and how it can impact you and your relationship.
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