Music video analysis 1

Video: Eminem – Guilty Conscience ft Dr Dre

The music video that i will be looking at is, ‘Guilty Conscience’ which is by the rapper Eminem and features other rapper Dr dre.The video belongs to the hip-hop genre of music and shows the culture broadly through the fragmented narritive and performance based visuals.

Throughout the video, the relationship between the lyrics and visuals is pretty obvious, as the narrative in the video is being told through the style and way that it has been structured, which is a narrative reminiscent of a reality tv show, as there is a host who at selected intervals explains the storyline to the viewers, this helps connect with the lyrics, as after the host has explained the events which are taking place, Eminem and Dre enter the scene acting as the characters conscience, explaining why the character should or shouldn’t go through with the act in question. Overall the video and lyrics share a close relationship and are parallel throughout the video.

The video and music also share a similar relationship, as the film has been edited in such a way that the scene stops in motion whilst the verses are being performed and the next scene is being introduced while the chorus plays, this is to create a bigger focus on the artists performing within the scene. It also creates a more structured approach to the narrative, as towards the end of the verse, the narrative begins again and this becomes the main focus again and the viewer is then aware of what’s happening.

The video relates to Eminem’ other videos through the storyline and the themes within the video, as in other Eminem videos, such as Stan, there are also scenes of violence and also in ‘Stan’ the video ends with the character murdering his pregnant wife, this shows a star image for the character of Eminem, as it continuous with the theme of violence and gritty scenes. This start image given to Eminem is not typically seen to be given to a artist from the Rap or Hip-Hop genre, as usually the star of a rap video is seen to be centred around the themes of money and wealth and will be a typically performance based video, whereas this video has been given a structure and a fragmented narrative.

The theme of voyeurism has been used once again, as we are referenced to the reality show within the video, as this invites the audience to view the scene as if it was being viewed on a television show. The artists also change outfits so that they are dressed identically to the main characters within the scene, it can be seen that this has been used to emphasize the focus on the actual scene instead of the artists, this also strays from the stereotypical music video from the rap genre, as the focus is predominantly the artist or ‘rapper’, however this is not the case within the Eminem video.

The main intertextual reference within this video is the reality television style narrative, which is centred around the lives of these characters who have a decision to, make, whilst being persuaded by both Eminem and Dr dre to make the choice between right and wrong, this has been used so that a wider audience can relate and understand the reference, as reality television shows are shown and recognized worldwide. Another intertextual reference within this video however is not as obvious, but still common to the hip-hop genre or lifestyle, the reference to the robbing of the liquor store is often seen in movies centred around the urban or ‘ghetto’ lifestyle and is seen in films such as, ‘Boyz In The Hood’ and ‘Four Brothers’, this is used to emphasize on the star image that has been created for the characters of Eminem and Dr dre.

There is a constant narrative which is present within the video, although there are a lot of performance based shots in where the two artists are seen rapping whilst surrounding the scene of the narrative, this emphasizes on Goodwins theory, as it helps amplify the relationship between the lyrics and visuals whilst it challenges the typical conventions within a music video from the hip-hop genre, as the video contains complexities within the storyline and is not centred around the artists, much like what is typically seen within a music video of this genre, however the artists do frequently appear in the video, this is so that the record company can still sell the star image of the artist without over shadowing the actual narrative of the video.

The conclusion I have come to is that while the video still used a method of performance and narrative based imagery, the use of camera angles and shots do not conform to the typical or standard shots seen within a video of this genre, this is mainly because of the stars image of Eminem in this video and as he is such a controversial character within the hip-hop scene it is possible for him to go against the conventions whilst still appealing to the same target audience.

Music video pitch

The song presented is a melodic feel good jazz inspired hip hop song from young rapper Quest and producer Thelonious with a fast paced beat including witty lyrics which provokes the feeling of nostalgia through the use of sampling.

The mood of the song takes you back to memorable moments in music without the references being too obvious, easing in the listener as the song proceeds.

We feel with the direction of the video should keep it parallel the tone and mood of the song, making it almost visually nostalgic without being overdone; the style of the beat is reminiscent of a classic J-dilla song from the mid 90’s. Listening to the track you can hear classic electric piano sampling which is reminiscent of a scene from a jazz and blues club form the mid 70's.

The song contains many intertextual references within the content of the lyrics and then occasionally interjects with old jazz sample which is possibly played by the bebop pioneer ‘Thelonious Monk’, which also contributes to the basic nostalgic feel that the song delivers.

In terms of directive styling we researched the work of Quest’s past videos and also the work of new creative directing teams like “creative control” While at the same time looking at concepts presented by other directors like Sanaa Hamri and BLKDMNDS. We enjoyed the pacing and styling of their videos and wish to implicate this in our videos.

We enjoyed the style of fast paced editing and dramatic camera shots which these directors brought through their videos and this is why we would like to develop this and intricate it into our final product. *******

We want to give the Artist, Quest a clear-cut image of a young witty rapper who’s creative and artistic direction coincides with his the direction of music when it comes to his styling and direction of his video.

For this video we want address the topics raised in to the video by the artist via video projection on to the artist him self as he narrates this through the lyrics. We plan to shoot a video in the style of the directors referenced and then project the video on to the artist and rerecord, similar to the techniques used by the band THE XX on the song Crystallized. We’ll include quirky costume changes and clever props that will help communicate things sighted in the lyrics.

The song opens up with a skipping sample and a Mario sound effect, we want to reference this visually On the projection we have an short clip of The video game character Mario jumping into a pipe Following this, the main star of the video jumps up into the scene as if he is emerging from the Mario pipe.

Once this is over, the performance beings; introducing the concept of video. A projection is played on to the stars face as he beings to narrate the lyrics of the song, also we’ll introduce the props for example

“hello my ladies” – The artist would pull out a Barbie doll and throw it away before pulling out a ken doll on the line “hello my fellas” . This would act as an intertextual reference to the rap stars Nikki Minaj and Drake and their Barbie and Ken like personification. For references to money we’d use monopoly money and make it rain down from the sky like the typical convention of many Hip Hop videos; while the rapper continues to narrate and perform, we’ll more visual representations of his lyrics on the project while at the same time allowing him to interact with the things projected. In between verses costume changes will occur

In verse one – The artist talks about him self and how cool he is so we want to reflect this in his costume; dressing him in key brand names that are considered “cool” in hip hop media

In verse two – the artist talks about money and how much he wants to get in his career; so to help reflect this we plan to dress him in more formal attire. Blazer, white shirt maybe even a red bow tie.