Rap Music Videos

I have decided to do a bit of research into the rap music genre for music videos as they seem to be becoming more and more popular among young people. Here are a few examples of some well known rap videos:

Lil Wayne - Lollipop

Kayne West - Gold Digger

50 Cent - Candy Shop


From watching all these videos i can see lots of elements they have in common, and which therefore must be conventional throughout the rap music genre.

Both 50 Cent's video and Lil Wayne's are very extravagant and show a very wealthy, enviable lifestyle. It is the typical lifestyle you would expect a star to have and therefore conforms to the stereotype to the audience. 50 Cent's video is set in a huge mansion which the audience would find fascinating and luxurious. We would immediately know that he is living a more privileged lifestyle than us. Also Lil Wayne's video is set in Las Vegas showing a very flash lifestyle full of money and gambling. Also it does not show a fairly ordinary holiday to Las Vegas, it instead shows an extremely expensive, outrageous one, again showing the audience that he is leading a very different lifestyle to them. Both videos encourage the audience to aspire to be like them. 

When watching all 3 videos, the theme of women in very little clothing is common throughout. All 3 videos show sexy women, dancing erotically and flaunting themselves in front of the rap star. In 50 Cent's video the entire video is based around women, with him going into a playboy type mansion and meeting them. They are all there to satisfy his needs and therefore dressed very provocatively and being extremely sexual. In Kanye West's video all the girls are imitating 80's pinups on the cover of mens magazines. Again it is using women in a very sexual way and many of them are dressed in very little clothing, posing in a raunchy way. Also once again they all seem to congregate around the star, signifying to the audience that women love him and he can have whatever he wants. In Lil Wayne's video, women are used to show off the extravaggant lifestyle he is leading in Las Vegas. They are dressed in very little and flaunting their assets. Once again they are treating Lil Wayne as if he is a god and would do anything for him. They are all very sexy and use this sexuality to entice the audience to watch the video. 

In all three videos the rap star is made to seem like the most important thing with the camera constantly cutting back to MS and MCU of them rapping in amongst the other images. Also they are all dressed very lavishly, with 50 Cent dressed in a chinchilla coat, Lil Wanye with a huge diamond necklace and Kanye West in a shirt and trousers. It draws all the attention to them and makes them the central point of the video, despite so much other action taking place. 

Lets Dance To Joy Division -The Wombats - New Treatment

With the new interpretation of the lyrics in mind i have decided to create a new treatment for the video. 

I would begin with a shot of the band performing their song at a gig in a dark room that seems fairly grubby with lots of indie fans. Then there will be cross cutting between this and a room full of rich, snobby people at a dinner party all laughing and enjoying themselves dressed in lots of expensive clothing and jewelry. It will show the contrasting sides of England spending their evenings in a different way. You see the story progress and in the last chorus we see the band and all the indie fans crashing the rich peoples party. It shows the two worlds colliding and all the chaos and discomfort it is causing the rich people to be surrounded by the others. It is showing in an abstract way the way they would react if they were placed in another persons situation and we can see that they are not very pleased, therefore showing the irony. 

Lets Dance To Joy Division - The Wombats - Lyrics

When hearing the lyrics at first we take it for face value, thinking its about being happy. However when reading them and hearing them again there is a deeper meaning to them and this is my interpretation:

I think the underlying meaning is that people in the world are really naive and oblivious to bad things that are happening on a day to day basis. They choose to be happy because their lives seem alright but elsewhere other peoples lives are not so great. It is saying that they may be happy now but the irony would be that if they ended up in a situation like the other peoples then maybe they would not be so happy and then what would they do. They are also saying that we try to help to make ourselves feel better about it but yet we are not really helping the situation at all. We are ignorant to what is going on because we would prefer to feel happy about our own lives going great than to feel depressed about everyone suffering in the world, although we give the impression that we really do care.

Music Videos I Like

I am planning to tell you about all the music videos in the past that i have watched and liked and the reasons why they have been so successful.

Eminem - Just Lose It


This is one of my favourite videos. When i first watched it i found it extrememly amusing and wanted to see it over and over again. The opening scene grabs your attention because Eminem is impersonating other celebrities. He does it in a cliche way to make it recognisable and funny to the audience and it makes you want to see what he will do next. His videos are always seen as quite contraversial because they always break the boundaries and brings up things that would normally be taboo. This creates debate around his videos and also makes us want to watch the video more and more as we do not see it that often. Throughout his video he comes out of character to directly address the camera as he is rapping. It brings the audience back to reality and makes them realise that they are watching an Eminem video, enforcing the reason why you begun watching the video. He acts out the lyrics throughout his video but not in a long, boring way. He does lots of cutting between scenes which makes it more interesting to the audience but yet he still manages to tell several different stories that match the lyrics. Also the way he makes fun of himself half way through the video makes the audience more accepting of his other impersonations and makes us gain more respect for him. He is laughing at himself so it is allowing the audience to laugh at him too. The camera and editing matches up with the beat of the song which makes it more catchy and clever. Although the video may seem very random at first glance there is a lot of underlying meaning in it which therefore makes it so appealing to the audience. They want to watch it to find out the reasons why he has done it and to find the humour in it. It makes you laugh, it is light hearted but yet still promotes the song and different issues.

This Ain't A Scene - Fall Out Boy

This is another video which i could just watch over and over again. It is again very comical which i love and the fact that is almost taking the mickey out of rock stars lifestyles makes the audience laugh at it more because they are laughing at themselves. At the beginning you see the end to their other video 'DanceDance' and i love the way how the video leads into the other, therefore showing a continuation of the story. They have incorporated their performing of the song as a band into the narrative which i think is very clever. The stories are all very outrageous and farfetched but yet the audience can still imagine them happening which is what makes it even more funny. Although it is almost a narrative the story line changes many times therefore making it more interesting for the audience. Also between each story you cut away to the band to a shot of a magazine cover with them as the headline. It makes the audience understand what is going on but also means the audience have to constantly be focussed throughout so that they do not miss any crucial detail. There is also a lot of cross cutting between each separate story and the band performing as part of the last story-line. This means that it is more easy to watch as it is not all just in one big chunk. The reason why i like this video though is because of the twist at the end where you find out it was his dream sequence. There is a clear distinction between the two worlds as reality is black and white and the dream in colour. It is extremely clever how they combine the two seamlessly and it ends with them playing their song at a normal gig. It is as if the video is taking us into the minds of the band and therefore making it so interesting.

Thriller - Michael Jackson
This is the classic best video of all time and i honestly agree. I could sit and watch this video for hours on end, however it is not a very conventional music video. The reason why i like it so much is because it turns the song by using the lyrics into short film. It keeps the audience hooked from start to finish because, like a film, we want to know what happens in the end. It sets the whole song up to have a particular atmosphere around it and therefore makes the song feel incomplete without the images to back it up. The zombie dancing in the middle of the video is legendary and a lot of the time i find myself watching the video to learn the dance moves. They fit to the music so well and the timing is so incredible that almost urges the audience to learn them and has become a routine for the song. Also the way that the video runs full circle with him killing his girlfriend as a warewolf, to him ending as a warewolf makes it more interesting and make you want to watch it again to see whether there is any deeper meanings or hidden clues. The way these dance moves and Michael Jackson singing are incorporated into the short film is so clever as they never come out of role once. It grabs your attention from start to finish and makes the audience want to join in which is why i think it is so successful. 

The Wombats - Lets Dance To Joy Division Treatment

We have each been asked to pitch our idea for 'The Wombat's - Lets Dance To Joy Division' so here is my idea:

The band are in  a white room ready to play as if they were playing a concert. They are dressed up in fairly crazy colours and their hair is very wacky to make them stand out from the background - very indie costume.

All begin standing fairly still with just the guitarist moving but as the drums begin there is a close up of them and then we see everybody start to move around a lot and dancing and jumping. 

There will be close ups of the singer singing into the camera from a high angle and you can see the rest of the band out of focus in the background.

Throughout the verse you will continuously cut from the main singer, to the band, and to single members of the band e.g. guitarist when it is significant.

When the chorus comes on you see a shot of a crowded white room full of indie teenagers dancing wildly as if at a gig. They are all very colourful and make the room seem bright. It is constantly cutting from this to the close up of the main singer singing into the camera. 

When the second verse comes on it goes back to just the shot of the band again and cutting between them and the close ups of each individual member focusing mainly on the lead singer. 

Second chorus will be the same as the first one.

The third verse will be close ups on the lead singer singing into the camera from a low angle. He will be very close to the camera and standing quite still as the music is quite slow. 

As the drum beat begins again to a close up of the drums and then cut to a long shot of the band begin to move around again. 

On the third repeat we cut to a shot of the indie teenagers standing still all clapping their hands simultaneously to the beat. We keep cutting between this shot and the close up of the lead singer.

Then as the music begins to pick up again to lots of cuts between the band and the close up of each individual member.

When the guitar begins again to a shot of all the teenagers dancing round wildly again as if at a gig but this time they are throwing around multicolored paint to make the white room more colorful rather than just being boring white.

When the singing begins again you cut to shot of the band and you see all the indie teenagers run on and begin throwing paint everywhere making their white room colourful. They band stop playing their instruments and singing and instead have a paint fight. 

When the music ends you cut to a shot of the lead singer with a painted red smile on his face standing next to a young indie girl covered in paint and smiling and they are both looking directly at the camera. 

My Music Video Project

We have just come back after our short time off for study leave and we have already begun our A2 media project. We are planning on making our own music video!! :)

It looks very challenging and will put my creativity to the test but i am so excited and cant wait to start. I have always wanted to make a music video as i enjoy listening to music and when there is nothing else on TV i always find myself flicking through the music channels. It seems like so much fun and its a great way to begin the new year :)

Ah im very excited!