Music Video Analysis

Media Music Video Analysis

                I have decided to do an analysis on the video ‘My Girl’ by KES the Band, it is a soca song taken from the album ‘ON IN 5’ released in 2009, directed by Sheldon Felix. Soca is defined as popular dance music, a blend between calypso and soul, originating from Trinidad.

                In the video there is a linear narrative taking place, indicating a ‘typical day in life of Kes the band ’ beginning with the singer, Kes, waking up next to what is represented to be his ‘girl’ [although the girl is changed frequently] then moving on to choosing what clothes to wear and so forth. The narrative takes place in imitation of a to-do list, as in, with every job done, a text appears at the bottom of the screen, with a tick next to it, indicating that the job has been done, however, at the end, we learn it is all a dream.

               

                Elliptical editing helps the video move quickly, almost like a link between the tempo of the song and visuals, the quick jump shots adds emphasis to the video which matches the speed of the song and lyrics, however, there is no signs where the video cuts to the beat, so the relationship with the visuals could be seen as weak. Yet the Instrumental part is signified through all the characters on screen not saying a word, although it is not noticeable, there is a non diegetic sound at the beginning of the video, accompanied by a blank screen, which indicates that the whole video is a dream, even if you don’t realise till the end, plus whenever there is a text on screen for example at 2:26, there is a non diegetic sound of a cashier to match with it.

The lyrics also seem to have a weak correlation with the song, as the lyrics is about the girl, how amazing she is, how she’s wanted by other guys and how much she means to the singer or narrator, yet the video shows shots of various different girls, and even more than one girl at the same time [3:47] whilst she is doing all the jobs for him. Some relation of the lyrics and the visual has been made such as ‘she knows what she wants and more’ [1:49] where Kes is singing to the audience and at the same time, he is sitting next to a sexy woman, dressed in formal wear and specs, a typical male gaze representation of a working, independent lady.

The video consist of various sexy and multiracial girls, with bright colours that connotes loudness, fun and confidence, also if fits well with the up beat music. The lighting is bright, as it follows the time line of a typical day in Trinidad, we assume this due to the mother figure waking up Kes at 4:49 who has a strong accent. The singer looks clean and fresh, probably since the females do everything for him, even put his toothpaste on his brush, plus it could be seen as clean men, get sexy girls as opposed to scruffy men with breads and casual clothes. Kes in this video happens to be wearing clothes that cover up the body, where as the girls are completely the opposite, wearing short and tight clothes, complete with make up, jewelry and neat hair.

               

Voyeurism is being exploited throughout this video, founded by Sigmund Freud, his theory is based on the notion that ‘erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object (preferably when the object is unaware of being watched)’ this is shown at numerous occasions in the video e.g. 0:44, where the singer looks into the lens of the camera, like he’s looking at the audience whom the girl cannot see. However this could of also been used by  Sheldon Felix in order to sell the product, by the singer looking into the camera, it creates a relationship between the audience and himself, making them feel like they are there with him, yet at the same time, it’s almost mocking ‘this could be you’ [1:26]

Furthermore, the video represents what a male’s view on a woman for example, there is only one man, and many women, which apparently is acceptable, as a man is allowed more than one woman, yet he sings of only one. All the ladies in the video, aside from his mother, is dressed in sexy clothes, or lack of, this is also emphasized by the use of slowing down the video on the women illustrating seductive poses or facial expressions. Although the video portrays change in history such as the feminist’s view of women being able to work and get paid higher than men compared to women only ever doing the house work, it can also connote that men see women as sexual objects rather and a sexual fantasy rather than respectable human beings, or that women portray themselves that way. Goodwin (1992) argues that with performers, male or female, females are regularly objectified through camera work and editing to emphasize a ‘sexualised treatment of the star’. On the other hand, it could also be mistaken as either Kes’ view on women, the narrator’s view on women, or even just what innocently happened in his dream.

Representation of sexuality has also been displayed here, at 0:34 there is sexual activity, distorted by jump shots and blurring, those of a young age would not likely understand. There are no signs of other sexualities however, only that of heterosexual, this is done my Sheldon Felix to engross the target audience, who are majority black male.

By targeting a certain audience, the director was able to play on the conventions of music videos that would engulf consumers, resulting in buying the products. These conventions include sexy women, bright colours, feel-good music and even the use of editing and camera work, such as slow motion pictures of women,  close up of the singer [for fans, especially fans who are female]. The use of stedicam , canted framing and tracking of singer, gives the impression that you’re with him, the use of free hand, however,  gives the video more dynamics, as well as acting as a POV shot [3:00 – 3:06]. But like most videos, the singer or band have a range of shots of them either playing the instrument or singing along to the song, this is usually done as if to assure the audience that the band/singer can really do it, even if we know that it has all been pre-recorded and unfortunately there is no visuals on the other band members. Humour is also used to help sell the merchandise, this is conveyed though the text at the beginning of video, conversing with the text ‘Yeh right!!’ at the end, followed by the sequence of the mother figure waking Kes from his dream.

From this we have learnt that with use of typical music video conventions i.e. sexy girls, and lip syncing, it is simple once you know how what type of structure you want your video to have, whether or not the lyrics, visuals and beat want to match and also the types of editing you’d like to use. The hardest bit would most likely be how to represent gender, age, ethnicity and such without offending too many people.