The two
music videos that I will be looking at are Kanye West`s Gold digger video and
the TI live your life video. In this essay I will be looking at its conventions
and subversions to its genre and what makes it appeal to the audience and also
be relating these to my own creative choices. The Kanye West video follows the
conventions due to the fact that it meets the genre requirements such as the
use of objectification of women as this meets the audience theories of
gratification as well as others such as belonging for the target audience.
There is
also the use of Todorov`s theory used as in the video narrative there is an
equilibrium, disruptor and a new equilibrium so this keeps the audience engaged
throughout. The use of aspiration in the video is evident as it is presented in
a manner to make it aspirational to men, for them to want to have that money
and the lifestyle, whereas for women it creates generally a negative effect and
image as within the hip hop industry they are viewed in an idealized and
objectified manner and as gold diggers in looking for famous rap stars. The
Laura Mulvey supports the fact that women are generally objectified and are at
the centre of the male gaze, this also provides a sense of escapism from the
target audiences own lifestyle.
So for our
own chosen music video of A Silent film – Sleeping dogs we are not looking to
objectify women in our video as our genre differs in the expected content of
the video, so we are going to be more focused on a more serious narrative as
our video focuses on a corruption/Government element more.
The other
video that I have chosen is TI Live Your Life; this is another song that is
within the Hip-Hop/RnB industry, the conventions that the videos shows many
type of aspects of the Hip Hop genre e.g. The clothes used, this is something
that again in our video we will not be concentrating too closely on as in our
genre as the target audience aspires to have a similar lifestyle of the artist
in the video e.g. playing the guitar and being a musical artist whereas in the
Kanye west and TI video the aspiration focuses much more on the lifestyle,
clothing and women. The video of TI focuses much more on narrative so it ends
up subverting in the fact that it does not objectify women in the video apart
from at times they put Rihanna whose featuring in the video and focus her at
the centre of the male gaze.
Due to the
video being much more narrative based video it does not focus on money or women
the conventional Hip Hop topic so for our video we are taking a similar
approach as we are focusing on the narrative much more and sending a message in
the video e.g. The effect of the government and corruption, whereas TI it is to
live life. This also shows that the video is using the Todorov’s theory much
more with the equilibrium in the video.
The video
also uses elements of Dyer theory as it has a sense of belonging in terms of
the lifestyle being lived e.g. Poor negative environment and having to be in
gangs etc and sell drugs for a living, but it contrasts in that it shows a
different lifestyle if you avoid the gangs and drugs etc, this is something’s
that in our video can be effective as we can shows the affects and changes of
corruption and not.
The video
though still gratifies the audience even though it doesn’t focus on the
bragging of their rich lifestyle or the objectification of women as it
represents a lot of their lifestyles before they become rich so it relations to
the Dyer theory of belonging. This is something that we intended to create an
effect of, to make sure that we are able to make the target audience relate to
the issue and have a sense of belonging.
The two
videos that I have chosen have certain similarities to what our video has to
include despite the difference in genre, so the use of clothing and typical
features would have to be used effectively so this would include things such as
instruments etc, these aspects symbolize the genre. There should also be things
such as aspiration for the target audience to be used as well as the majority
of audiences should be used in the video effectively e.g. Dyers Theory.
