AH: Music Video Analysis

Artist: Duck Sauce

Song: Barbra Streisand

Media Language

• The message of the video in my eyes is a celebration of the city of New York.
• It features many prominent and affiliated artists making cameo appearances, such as Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, André 3000, Ryan Leslie, Buckshot, Smif-n-Wessun, DJ Premier, Todd Terry, Chromeo, DJ Mehdi, So Me (who also directed the video), Diplo, Questlove, Ezra Koenig, Santigold, Yelawolf, The Roots & Fafi and the Fat Jew of Team Facelift. It is very multicultural and shows representations of a huge range of cultures and ethnicities.
• However there are also many long shots and pans of iconic landmarks of New York. The editing is hugely important in the video as there is a fast cutting rate to keep up with the tempo of the song.
• The Mise en scene is really what makes the video, the variety of people and their fashion, all the different instruments all create the representation of New York the music video intended too.
• The music video is postmodern as it is celebrating the city as it today. The considered art in the music video is very disjunctive as it has no relation to Barbra Streisand.

Representation

• Duck sauce is made up of two DJ’s, Armand van helden and A-Trak both from Canada. In the video they make a few brief appearances, however the video itself creates a representation of the artists as accepting of all cultures and ethnicities.
• This helps to sell their product as people respect them not only as artists but as people as well.
• The music video gives a sense they have a big star image as they have a long list of big name artists making cameos in the music video.
• All the different social groups included are represented as happy and kind. The way in which they have created this representation is by having all the different social groups smiling and laughing in the video.
• The ideological discourse is that everyone is equal and living in perfect harmony with one another. No one in the video looks upset or submissive.
• The dominant values of the music video are the dominant ideologies of today which are equality and the celebration of multiculturalism. 

           

Artist: Netsky

Song: Puppy

Institution and audience

•  This video is most likely to be consumed mainly on the internet, by internet I mean YouTube. As Netsky isn’t a huge artist he won’t be played much next to the likes of Justin Bieber and Beyonce.
• Therefore he relies heavily on the internet to create his star image. Most of his music videos have achieved way over 1 million views on YouTube proving it is a huge factor in the distribution of his music.
• The label Netsky is signed to the record label called Hospital Records who have other artists such as Danny Byrd and many others. The genre Hospital Records specialise or are known for is predominantly Drum ’n’ Bass and Jungle.
• The record label is present in the music video as one of the actors is wearing a hoodie with the labels logo on the front of it. The whole video is based in one location and one event, a group of people going down a narrow road on a large hill on what seem to be long boards.
• The feeling the participants get whilst they are going down is a massive rush of adrenaline; the genre of the song is up-tempo that matches to this high-energy sport.

Genre and Narrative

• To put the music video in one category of either illustrative, amplification or disjuncture is very hard, however to pick one it would have to be disjuncture.
• The music video isn’t loads of random events, its simply one and after a few seconds it doesn’t seem random at all it seems to suit the song perfectly.
• Instead it waits 3 or 4 and then changes to allow audiences to appreciate the beauty of the location and setting of the music video.
• At the start of every music video audiences are trying to create some sort of exposition of the content that is to come, this video is obviously no different.

Artist: Nicki Minaj ft. 2 Chainz

Song: Beez In The Trap

Media Language

• The message of the video is in the title and about the artist (Nicki Minaj). ‘Beez In The Trap’ means something completely different; ‘Beez’ is slang for ‘I’m always’ and in the ‘trap’ is ‘making money’.
• Therefore the songs title means simply, ‘I’m always making money’. The artist image of Nicki Minaj shows her to be wearing a lot of expensive jewellery with lots of shots of lots of money, reinforcing the title meaning that she is rich. This image of her wealth gives a sense that she is powerful.
• The visual techniques that are used are mainly a fast cutting rate and slow motion shots. One of my favourite visual techniques in the video is where it flutters between two different shots very quickly. I would love to try and include this technique in my production.

Institution and audience

• This video will be consumed on all major music channels as the artist is signed to a major record company and therefore can be distributed to the worldwide market. Also the video will be consumed on the internet via video sharing websites such as YouTube.
• The record company Nicki Minaj is with is Young Money Records who are a 'hip-hop' label founded by the rap artist Lil Wayne. All the artists within this label produce the same genre and therefore will most likely contribute ideas towards the institutional context of their music videos to each other.