On this document, I will be discussing
different aspects of music videos. These aspects will be Purpose, Style,
Representations, Editing, Moving Image Codes, Visual Codes, Key Terms and
audio, in this order. The Music Video I will be referencing for this is " Drake-Nice For What" //www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9BwWKXjVaI
The purpose of a music video is when a music video was made for a certain reason, such as the promotion of an actual song or a whole album. For example, in Nice For What, it was a promotion for a single, then due to it's popularity, became a promotion for Drake's album Scorpion, along with his other flagship song "In my Feelings".
Style:
The type of approach and run the whole music video has, from beginning to end. There are three different possible styles. Thematic, where the video focuses on different themes, and may use satire humour to get it's points across. A lot of the time it will discuss controversial issues. Performance, where the artist will place focus on themselves and possibly others, showing of their skills, maybe dancing, drawing, a certain hobby. Narrative, where the music video appears to have some sort of story to follow from beginning to end. Only thing is, it's sung instead of read. For Nice for What, I think the style is a mix of Performance and Thematic. I will explain why later on.
Representations:
This is an important part of the music video. This is what the music video wants to send as a message to audience. What are they talking about and why. Like gender, ethnicity, national identity or age. Or all of them at once like "This is America" by Childish Gambino. In Nice For What, Representations of Gender and ethnicity are touched upon. The majority gender shown in the video are women. Not as much through a male gaze as it is showing women appreciating themselves for their looks, and features This Connotes confidence within women. In addition, ethnicity is shown massively, as their is an actor for each ethnicity. This connotes Drake as a multi-culturist, and drake giving his point of view that people from all races should be appreciated. I feel like National Identity is not touched upon.
Moving Image Codes:
Drake has used a wide variety of different camera shots in his video. There is a full range of close ups, mid shots and long shots throughout the video. And all the different models receive at least one of each. I think this backs up my earlier point, showing he wants all women to have the same treatment, and that neither of them should be appreciated less or more than the other. The angles stay mainly mid way, looking at the models directly. However towards 2:26, camera movement becomes prominent. Panning, whilst on a close shot. This shows them profiling the different models. Almost like scanning their faces. This connects to my earlier point because when scanning something, like a fingerprint, it's always unique and there's not another thumb you can scan which will be exactly the same. This represents women as unique again. The only zooms I noticed were towards the end of the video, around 3:20 to the very end. The first one being a zoom out of another women, however she's not presented the same. When you finally hit a long shot on this women, you see that she is meditating. This actually presents her physically on a higher level to the rest of the women in the video, juxtaposing my earlier point. Although this could be drake saying to the viewers of this video that by the time they reach the end (mainly the women) they will be 'mentally and emotionally' higher than they've ever been. As for editing, the video cuts to the beat throughout, and the pace stays the same.
Audio:
The lyrics for the song can be found at https://www.google.co.uk/search q=nice+for+what+lyrics&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB815GB815&oq=Nice+for+what+lyrics&aqs=chrome.0.0l6.5247j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. The chorus speaks from what seems to be a womans perspective. They repeat, "you said you'd care for me", "you said you'd die for me" and "why won't you live for me". I don't think this is directed at Drake, but instead at the different men that the women had relationships with. This presents the expectations women have on men, and what they think they should be willing to offer when in a relationship. This is effective on the female audience. Strongly on feminists, as women show themselves to be dependent on men within the video. As for men, they would most likely also take offense to this. It's a stereotype that men constantly don't give women what they want and need, and it would be regressive for men when being presented in this video. However clearly Drake's focus is on appreciation of women and not his own gender throughout the video and lyrics. We see
Style:
The type of approach and run the whole music video has, from beginning to end. There are three different possible styles. Thematic, where the video focuses on different themes, and may use satire humour to get it's points across. A lot of the time it will discuss controversial issues. Performance, where the artist will place focus on themselves and possibly others, showing of their skills, maybe dancing, drawing, a certain hobby. Narrative, where the music video appears to have some sort of story to follow from beginning to end. Only thing is, it's sung instead of read. For Nice for What, I think the style is a mix of Performance and Thematic. I will explain why later on.
Representations:
This is an important part of the music video. This is what the music video wants to send as a message to audience. What are they talking about and why. Like gender, ethnicity, national identity or age. Or all of them at once like "This is America" by Childish Gambino. In Nice For What, Representations of Gender and ethnicity are touched upon. The majority gender shown in the video are women. Not as much through a male gaze as it is showing women appreciating themselves for their looks, and features This Connotes confidence within women. In addition, ethnicity is shown massively, as their is an actor for each ethnicity. This connotes Drake as a multi-culturist, and drake giving his point of view that people from all races should be appreciated. I feel like National Identity is not touched upon.
Moving Image Codes:
Drake has used a wide variety of different camera shots in his video. There is a full range of close ups, mid shots and long shots throughout the video. And all the different models receive at least one of each. I think this backs up my earlier point, showing he wants all women to have the same treatment, and that neither of them should be appreciated less or more than the other. The angles stay mainly mid way, looking at the models directly. However towards 2:26, camera movement becomes prominent. Panning, whilst on a close shot. This shows them profiling the different models. Almost like scanning their faces. This connects to my earlier point because when scanning something, like a fingerprint, it's always unique and there's not another thumb you can scan which will be exactly the same. This represents women as unique again. The only zooms I noticed were towards the end of the video, around 3:20 to the very end. The first one being a zoom out of another women, however she's not presented the same. When you finally hit a long shot on this women, you see that she is meditating. This actually presents her physically on a higher level to the rest of the women in the video, juxtaposing my earlier point. Although this could be drake saying to the viewers of this video that by the time they reach the end (mainly the women) they will be 'mentally and emotionally' higher than they've ever been. As for editing, the video cuts to the beat throughout, and the pace stays the same.
Audio:
The lyrics for the song can be found at https://www.google.co.uk/search q=nice+for+what+lyrics&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB815GB815&oq=Nice+for+what+lyrics&aqs=chrome.0.0l6.5247j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. The chorus speaks from what seems to be a womans perspective. They repeat, "you said you'd care for me", "you said you'd die for me" and "why won't you live for me". I don't think this is directed at Drake, but instead at the different men that the women had relationships with. This presents the expectations women have on men, and what they think they should be willing to offer when in a relationship. This is effective on the female audience. Strongly on feminists, as women show themselves to be dependent on men within the video. As for men, they would most likely also take offense to this. It's a stereotype that men constantly don't give women what they want and need, and it would be regressive for men when being presented in this video. However clearly Drake's focus is on appreciation of women and not his own gender throughout the video and lyrics. We see
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