Artist: Macklemore
Genre: Hip-Hop
Typical conventions featured in this video are: shots of buildings, performance/narrative style (Lynch), graffiti, a big 'crew' or following, rapping whilst walking and or dancing with the camera tracking, cars etc (Gow song and dance number).
The video was shot in Spokane, Washington which was perfect as the downtown business district is packed full of buildings which are so commonly seen in hip-hop/ rap music videos. The location perfectly represents the hip-hop culture.
The dancing in the music video has elements of soul and funk but works with the style of music.
The video features topless men and skinny women (Goodwin - voyeurism) provocatively licking lollipops which coincides with the hegemonic heterosexual ideologies and also the male gaze (Laura Mulvey) which is true to hip-hop and rap music videos
The camera tracks Macklemore as he rides his moped throughout downtown Washington and also while he's walking with his crew, something that occurs in a lot of hip-hop videos because hip-hop and rap is all about a big community and crew, so having the main singer surrounded by lots of people shows this off perfectly.
There's a lot of intertextuality in this music video (Goodwin) from West Side Story, tributes to old school hip-hop and Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk feature in this music video, there's even cameos from famous old school rappers Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz and Kool Moe Dee.
Something to make note of is the fact that there is a massive contrast in hip-hop music videos in terms of money and flashing cash. Like this video, a lot of hip-hop/ rap music videos are of rappers who have made it, who have the means and money to make big music videos about how well they're doing, but in America, 'downtown' often refers to urban areas with gun-crime, gangs and poor families who can only dream of buying 'mopeds' for the hell of it as Macklemore does to easily in his video. I think there are definitely some big similarities between Downtown's music video and other hip-hop music videos but I think this one misses the point of in my opinion, 'real' hip hop which raps about problems with raw emotion, rappers who have actually lived and experienced the true 'downtown' - flaws and all.
Hip-Hop is a music genre that has developed throughout the years.
More typically this is a genre produced by black people, when this genre first came about there was a lot of oppression and music was a way to fight the oppression, but artists such as Macklemore and many more appreciated the music and decided to create music of this genre too.
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Song: Dead Body
Artist: Little Simz
Genre: Hip-Hop
Dead Body is emotive, raw and unique. The song is very personal and discusses Little Simz's life, and this is reflected in the music video. It combines performance, narrative and conceptual and it is unlike anything I have ever seen before.
Joan Lynch (1984) discussed the theory that music videos generally come under 3 main categories, performance, conceptual and narrative. As time has gone on, and we've come into a post-modern world, these categories have become more hybrid and are more often mixed with eachother.
Little Simz has taken advantage of this in her music video and it works beautifully. The left photo above is an example of the 'performance' category with Little Simz rapping to the song, the middle is an example of conceptual, where the editing takes over and captures the eye, and the right is an example of the narrative where we see a dead body as that's what the song is titled and about.
Joan Lynch (1984) discussed the theory that music videos generally come under 3 main categories, performance, conceptual and narrative. As time has gone on, and we've come into a post-modern world, these categories have become more hybrid and are more often mixed with eachother.
Little Simz has taken advantage of this in her music video and it works beautifully. The left photo above is an example of the 'performance' category with Little Simz rapping to the song, the middle is an example of conceptual, where the editing takes over and captures the eye, and the right is an example of the narrative where we see a dead body as that's what the song is titled and about.
It is shot entirely in black and white which adds to the emotion in the song, but the use of contrast is absolutely breathtaking and creates the very raw feel.
The use of widescreen bars is also very effective and creates a cinematic feel without taking away from the fact it's a music video.
The music video is beautifully morbid. We see a dead body, a body bag, and a dead bird, yet it's not done in a gory way, it's incredibly artistic which can be seen below
The music video is beautifully morbid. We see a dead body, a body bag, and a dead bird, yet it's not done in a gory way, it's incredibly artistic which can be seen below
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