Music Video Analysis

Music Video Analysis

Kanye West

Genre characteristics

Of Kanye West videos• The genre characteristics of

hip-hop/Rap are not included very much In many of Kanye west’s music videos do not focus to much on the wealth and jewelry that is conventional of a rap/hip-hop artist although his lyrics are sometimes about wealth however, there are elements of convention within many of his music videos for example the women are usually dressed in revealing and seductive clothing there are also may close ups of him in many of his videos (he is always the center of the music video)

Meeting Demands of The Record Label

Goodwin’s Theory • In Goodwin’s theory it states that in order

to meet the demands of the record label there must be many close ups of the artist included within the music video so that the artist can develop a motif across to the audience in this the All of the lights music video, Kanye West has many close up of is face where he mine to the camera which projects his personality across the screen to the audience through his facial expressions which are sometimes aggressive to match the content of his lyrics

Meeting Demands of The Record Label

In All of the lights Video• The record label reinforces the non

conformist nature of Kanye West which is seen in many of his other music videos, this is show when he is on to of the police car it implies that he is above the law and show that he is a powerful person there is still some relation to the song in that layer as the lights on the police car are flashing relating back to the theme of the song

Relationship between the lyrics and visuals

Of Kanye West All of the lights Video

• The relationship between the lyrics and the visual is strong mainly because when most of the words in the lyrics are said they also appear on screen in some sort of animation which amplifies the lyrics of the song. The lyrics of the song are also amplified by the short clips of actions by the actors this illustrates the lyric of the video which makes the music video narrative as he is telling a story through the lyrics and the music video.

Relationship between music and visuals

Of Kanye West all of the lights video

• There is a strong relationship between the music and the visuals throughout the music video. Firstly the cuts are made to match the sound of the beat/the drums of the song there are sometimes extremely fast cuts to match the extremely fast beat of the drums in the song. Sometimes the speed of the cuts are so fast that it feels as if the two different shots are merged (both shots are on screen at the same time). The cuts also slow down to match the pace of the song. There are also cuts that are repeated towards the end of the song to match the a repetitive part of the tune. Furthermore at the start of the song during the interlude the shots changes to match the piano key (cut on beat) and as the song slows down so do the cuts.

In the video both these shots seem as if they are merged together due to the extremely fast cuts

Voyeuristic treatment of the female body

The voyeuristic element in the music video is seen when the female artist in the song Riannnah when we see her in her revealing outfit that she is wearing as the outfit does not leave much to the imagination also the seductive gestures that she makes such as stroking her hair and her body. She also maintains eye contact with the camera for long periods of time as she sings which may lure in the male audience as they feel it is more intimate

Intertextual references

In Kanye West all of the lights music video • There are no intertextual references

in the music video this maybe due to the fact that the artist himself is a very original character therefore would want to portray this in his music video. However in other previous music videos by Kanye West there have been intertextual references due to the intertextual references in the song. So based on that I think that because there are not intertextual references in the son there are non In the video