Evaluation question 1

In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The song ‘Children in Need’ doesn’t have an existing music video which meant we had to look at previous music videos that the artist has so that it would give us an idea on how the artist likes to be portrayed in his videos. Most of his videos are performance based with him rapping to the camera apart from his 2007 single ‘pushin’ which is a mixture of performance and narrative with a young boy acting as the artist in his teen years. We as a group decided that our music video will be narrative and performance which challenges the conventions of a typical rap video. Majority of rap videos are performance based, with the artists performing straight into the camera. This often gains recognition for the artists, especially those who aren’t as well known. This is where the star theory can be included, unknown artists will feature on a well-known artist’s song so that they can gain some recognition. The typical conventions of a rap video can be seen in the Sneakbo ‘cant believe’ music video.

The concept of ‘Children in need’ is a true story and has quite a deep meaning to it. We can link our music video to that of Krept and Konan’s ‘My Story’ music video. This video is unlike any of their others as it consists of narrative throughout. The song tells us the story of what Konan went through when he first entered the music industry and before he became known. The narrative helps us visualise the story and helps us understand the struggle the artist went through. For the first ¾ of the video it shows the negative things that kept happening to the artist but then after the cut, it comes back with krept and konan laughing and joking and telling us of the positive things that began to happen. In another music video that they have ‘don’t waste my time’ shows the typical conventions of a rap video. For example, numerous police vans turn up to the scene due to the anti-social behaviour that the music video shoot is causing. The artists are also promoting their clothing brand ‘play dirty’ in their video by having most of the people in the background wearing one of their shirts.

We wanted to take inspiration from other genres and music videos. For example, we used Ed Sheeran’s use of black and white in the music video The A-Team. We also wanted to link it to The A-Team as we had similar visuals, for example having both actresses looking in the mirror. It also links back to The A-Team as they both tell a story of a young girl going through rough times in their lives.

We challenged the typical conventions of a rap video as our artist chooses not to perform into the camera and doesn’t give the camera hardly any eye contact. This could represent the fact that the artist doesn’t want to face the truth within the lyrics as it all happened to his big sister. It also shows the humble side of the artist compared to that of other artists like Stormzy who perform quite aggressively to the camera.

UK rap artists keep their videos mainly performance based as in they’ll be up close rapping into the camera whereas US rap artists will rap into the camera but they’ll have their distance from the camera. They may also be included in a dance routine or will have dancers performing behind them. For example Chris Brown in his hit single ‘loyal’ is included in the dance routine as well as having times where he will rap into the camera. From watching a range of different rap videos, I noticed that quite a few rap videos are narrative based. For an older example we can look at 2Pac ‘ghetto gospel’ shows us a day in the life of a young black man living in poverty in the US. A newer example of a narrative rap music video can be ‘Ricos Story’ by Speaker Knockers, which states the story of a young black male who is betrayed by his girlfriend.

The locations used in the music video fit the rap genre; as they are council owned areas, which are often shown in typical UK rap music videos. I decided to film at the Watermans Arts Centre, as I liked the graffiti designs on the back wall, which you can see in the music video. I wanted to show this as it is urban and it brings some colour to the video. Graffiti is something we see everyday around London. In some cases it can look nice and be classed as art, but majority of the time it is gang names, peoples tag names and vandalism. Quite a few artists like having graffiti in the background of their video as it shows the gritty and more truthful side of London.  For example Chips newest video ‘school of grime’ is set in an underground tunnel, where the walls are covered in graffiti. Location is one of the things we didn’t challenge.

Through research, I learnt that most UK rap artists would keep their location of their video simple and easy. They keep to urban settings like studios, streets, council estates or areas they grew up in. Some US artist’s do the same for example 2Pac ‘to live and die in L.A’ shows certain places in L.A that have a relivance to the lyrics. On the other hand you have some US artists who will chose places that most show of their wealth and fortune. For example ‘High School’ by Nicki Minaj is set in a huge mansion, which has no relevance to the song.

Although we challenged some of the codes and conventions, there were a few that we kept the same. We did this so that people would be able to recognise this as the rap genre. The conventions we kept the same include the mentions of crime, violence and drugs.  In the song, the artist tells us of the negative effects drugs had on his sister’s life, for example becoming a heroin addict, and being sentenced to eight months in Holloway prison. The lyrics could also be a way of getting a message across to young people, that smoking weed may be a fun high at the time but that doesn’t last and can lead to more lethal drugs. There are some artists who promote drugs and alcohol to young people.  For example, Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa are the main artists that promote smoking weed. In their song ‘that good’, you see the artists and fellow associates smoking a lot of cannabis. Which obviously isn’t setting a good example seeing as their main target audience is teenagers. Crime and violence are also mentioned in the song ‘beating up her younger brother for attention’ shows that she would use violence to get attention from others, as she was a young trouble teen. The crime element is shown through her ‘nicking cars’ and ‘drug dealing’ as a way to make money. This music video doesn’t show the luxuries of the music industries but the true stories behind their ‘star image’ of money, cars, gold chains and women.

For the magazine advert I looked at artists such as Chris Brown and Wretch 32. I liked how wretch 32s advert was quite simples and stuck two a few colours. I liked how it had a block of flats in the background, which kept it urban and showed the gritty sides of London. Chris Browns was similar in ways and it had buildings in the background, showing him to be on the top of a building.  When filming the music video, I asked the artist to do a quick photo shoot in the park. I thought the park would be quite iconic as we named the EP ‘Estate Dreams’. Every estate has a park, so from the artist sitting on the swings in a park, it could show the artist reflecting on his past and reminding himself of his success.  

In our music video we included Goodwin’s theory of visuals and lyrics. I think there is a strong link between the lyrics and visuals because are emphasised. Majority of the time the lyrics and visuals link but in other parts we decided not to as we wanted to show different aspects. This makes the music video more emotive and connects more with the audience.

We also included Laura Mulvey’s theory by not sexualising our actresses or our artist. In most music videos nowadays, women are being objectified. We decided to go against the conventions of a rap music video as we didn’t show our artist or actresses in a sexualised manor. This behaviour of sexualising women in music videos has become something of the norm and interestingly enough, men are now becoming even more sexualised for the female gaze.