Monday 15 December 2014
Historical Text and Research
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
This rap video is from 1988. The comparison between a video like this and those of Odd future are largely different. The conventional and historic rap music videos like this by NWA demonstrates and encourages violence and negative stereotypes that are not as strong in todays media. The video shows rebellious nature by those performing as the performers look serious and the main content is opposing themselves against the police, by doing this they are giving a negative connotation to the area they are proud to be representing... Compton, LA.
The negative stereotypes are emphasised by the use of lyricism, in which the performers express their hatred of the police by swearing and cursing. The name of the band also emphasises their rebellious nature as they are called Niggaz wit Attitudes.
Comparing this to an alternative rap music video like those of Tyler The creator we can see how the rap genre has evolved and other forms of rap music can still be accepted as these modern groups are also successful. In todays hip-hop there has been a rejection of some of the conventions that were one day making it seem like a negative genre. The rejections are those that of street videos and rapping about such raw content.
Music like that of Odd Future is more personal where rappers are talking about various other subjects rather than representing certain areas and being gangsters. the content of todays hip-hop is much more diverse than when the genre was still establishing itself. The music videos are not as serious as hardcore street videos and they are now produced on sets where the music video can be altered with
effects.
The clothes worn by NWA seem to be simple and plain sweatshirts that do not make them look like celebrities at all however an artist like Tyler, The Creator would wear colourful clothes including high socks and shorts as he enjoys skateboarding also. A rapper in this attire would have been heavily rejected by traditional rappers as this would make them look feminine and would not support the conventions of the genre.
Monday 8 December 2014
Ferguson, R. (1998). Representing "race": Ideology, identity, and the media. London: Arnold. Gauntlett, D. (2002). Media, gender, and identity: An introduction. London: Routledge. Lacey, N. (1998). Image and representation: Key concepts in media studies. New York: St. Martin's Press. Malik, S. (2002). Representing black Britain a history of black and Asian images on British television. London: SAGE Publications. Perry, I. (2004). Prophets of the hood: Politics and poetics in hip hop. Durham: Duke University Press. Wingwood, G M. (2003). Prospective Study of Exposure to Rap Music Videos and African American Female Adolescents’ Health [http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.93.3.437] Johnson. J D. (1995). Differential gender effects of exposure to rap music on African American adolescents' acceptance of teen dating violence [http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01544683#page-2] Brown, J D. (2006)Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents' Sexual Behavior [http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/117/4/1018.short] DuRant R H. (1997). Tobacco and alcohol use behaviors portrayed in music videos: a content analysis. [http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.87.7.1131]
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Authenticity within hip-hop and other cultures threatened with assimilation
by K McLeod
Contextual Analysis
The music video starts of with a still image of a 'GOBLIN' logo. This may tell us that the artists represent a brand called goblin or could even connote that the viewer is about to watch something scary. The video then starts with a close up shot of a road sign saying 'nil bog' which is 'goblin' backwards, now indicating the video does represent a brand. There is also diegetic sound as we can hear cars go past. In the same scene the camera zooms to the right hand side of the road showing a long shot of three men gambling, one of the men starts to sing, indicating he is one of the artists in the song (Frank Ocean). The scene then changes to a close shot of the man rolling dice and holding money in his hand that makes it clear he is gambling. The scene then changes to a woman moving into a house, and we can see the that the three men are looking at them. This gives us a indication that the song is about this woman. The scene then changes to a close up of her face and she is smiling at Frank Ocean meaning that she is happy to be moving in near him, or suggesting that they may have had a previous relationship of some sort. The girl is then escorted into the house by an elder man. The scene then changes to a shot of the artist and the woman in bed however he pushes her to the side and looks out the window and we can now tell that time has passed because it is now dark. He also sees this man in a balaclava and therefore rings the police describing that he has seen some kind of goblin. there is a slide scene that shows a policeman listening to him on the phone. The next scenes show that the girl is angry because the man is not with her now and she even seems to be angry with her dad, she lies down in her room alone with the door shut meaning that she needs her own time. She eventually falls asleep and the man seen at the window with the balaclava has appeared and is now also rapping indicating he is the other artist (Tyler The Creator). He then reveals his face raps the song to this woman even though she is sleeping and cannot hear him, while doing this he also smells some of her clothes and tells her to meet him by the lake by writing the message on her window. He has probably avoided waking her up because she would freak out and cause an uproar within the household. The next scene is a 180 degree pan that shows Tyler running out the house, so fast that he trips to a wall where frank is sitting down near some flowers observing what is happening. The scene then changes to a daytime of a shot of Tyler riding his bike really fast with some of his friends behind him, this switches to a shot of the woman riding her bike calmly with her friends, indicating they are both going to the lake. The scene then changes to both of them at the lake until the music stops and tyler realises it is a dream. Tyler and his friends get arrested which could be a result of Frank calling the police earlier. The scene next shows Tyler in the police car eventually being brought to the neighbourhood he was stalking this woman. The police men get into a brawl with an elder man that could be the woman's dad, This is a distraction so tyler starts to speak to the woman and now she looks unimpressed until he compliments her, there is nothing else to say and they are both smiling and Tyler is looking at the camera. The video finishes by zooming out into a television frame making out that all of this was a short film. We can then see the same woman watching this on her sofa. The camera then slowly zooms out to show Tyler again in his balaclava looking down at her. Throughout the video the lighting was tinted slightly blue in the daytime to give us a feeling of gloom. whereas other shots were mostly at night or inside with very dim lighting.
Overall this music video has amazing cinematography, the video in various scenes makes the viewer intrigued by the way scenes have been moved on the the other. The eccentric concepts in the video also make it appealing to viewers. We can also relate that the 'Goblin' logo and 'nilbog' sign post are parallel with the theme and concept of the whole video. The video also leaves the viewer on the edge due to the cliff-hanger at the end when we find out that all of this was being watched on a television by the same people in the film.
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