The 4 key concepts analysis

On our first lesson for A2, we were looking at how to analysis music videos. To get us comfortable into the A2 year, we looked closer, and it was broken down into 4 key concepts. The following key concepts were; genre, representation, media language, and narrative. We were looking at how the video piece together to promote the artist, genre, and song.

I am going to be analyzing a video, by Cee Lo Green called "Forget you" Which came out in 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB_M79prhCI

Genre

The genre forget you by Cee Lo Green, comes under Hip hop. The setting and location is at a diner, where teenagers meet up to hang out. This video reminds me of Sean Kingston's number one hit "Beautiful Girls", as the setting and location is quite similar. The artist (Cee Lo Green) , is dressed up presentable and smart. He is wearing a navy blue suit, with a black and white hanki chief neatly tucked into the blazer pocket. He is wearing a white shirt, with a black and white tie. The whole suit indicates that he is a lady's man, rich, and handsome. He has black dark shade glasses on, which indicates that he is "cool." He has a black stone earring is each ear, which links in with the genre hip hop, as these kind of earrings are worn in most of the hip hop videos. Part of the video has natural lighting, creating a cheerful mood, as if you want to be there. The rest of the lighting is from the diner, which is quite dull. It creates a lonely mood.

Representation

In this video, there is a strong gender representation. In this video the woman is seen as beautiful, as we are the observer from the man's perspective. Acoording to Mulvey, she says, "In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly." In the video the man is giving the woman eye contact, which always occurs in hip hop music videos. However, in Cee Lo Green's video (forget you), the man focuses more on the womans face. Normally there will be camera shots from the man's perspective looking at her body, in this sense he is looking more at the beautiful features on her face.

Media Language

The way edits in this video are quite slow, as the tempo is at mid pace. The edits are cut to the beat at real timing. There is no repetition, it flows in order. I feel that the editing is conventional to the song. The camera work is also conventional to the genre, as there are long shots of the artist showing off his suit and, the close ups of his face, showing his features. In hip hop videos, there are normally long shots and close ups of the artist, to show their expensive wear.

Narrative  

I would describe this video as a, linear structured video. It is clear to the audience that he is going through the cycle off growing up. We see him as a little boy, then a teenager, and then an adult. The disruption in this video is when, he is trying to get the girls attention, but she does not like him, so she goes up to him and throughs chips on his shirt. In this video she is kwown as the "heartbreaker." The equilibrium in this video is when, the roles reverse, he gets rich while she is sweeping the streets. The artist (Cee Lo Green) is the participant, as he is the one that had a crush on the "heartbreaker." He is the observer, as he sees what is going on. And he is also the narrator, as he is singing and telling the audience the stroy. The lyrics link to the narrative, as Cee Lo Green is illustrating the lyrics, which also links with the video.