The video ‘Same girl’ by Usher and R Kelly, directed by Little X is a typical R’n’B video. It conveys the majority of the conventions that are common within the genre, especially with the mise-en-scene.
The setting is a stereotypical big house, with luxury furnishing, which we see though long shots and in the background, such as the grand fire place with warm rich colours, connoting to wealth. They also have big couches and lots of technology, all presenting the rich wealthy style in the mise-en-scene . R’n’B videos often have a rich, glamorous feel as the songs tend to relate to that kind of lifestyle in the lyrics.
Also they have lots of close ups of women in a provocative manner, which is very much associated with the R’n’B genre, as again having the money and cars connotes to having beautiful, sexy women. Close up shots and tilting down shots are used to explore the woman's body and therefore sexualise her. There are also a lot of mid and close up shots of them drinking and smoking, which is a key prop often used in r and b music videos as they are symbols of people having a good time and again this glamorous and luxurious lifestyle.
The video directly links to the lyrics, as the song is all about two friends being in love with the same girl, and that is the narrative that is portrayed on the screen. This video again shows Goodwin's theory, as the visuals illustrate the lyrics quite clearly to show a narrative to the audience. The video constantly cross cut to the scenes they are talking about, like meeting her for the first time, showing the strong relationship between the visuals and the actual song. Also the video is very centred around the girl, there are constantly close ups of her face, so the audience instantly associate who the villain is in the narrative, like the shot above where we see both of them with the girl in between, putting her as the focus, however in a provocative manner as it is an extreme close up of her lips. As well as this the cross cutting suggest a close bond between the men, showing that the video is also based on a close friendship.
There is also strong links with the music and the visuals, especially when it comes to editing. Whenever R Kelly sings, we get close-ups or extreme close ups of his face and its also the same with Usher. If both are singing you either get a wide shot of both of them, an over the shoulder shot (like in the car) or a split screen with close ups. This instantly shows the audience who is singing which part and helps to promote the artist, again following one of Goodwin's ideas that music video's have close ups in order to promote the artist. The video is always constantly cutting to the beat and as the pace of the music gets quicker and it becomes more dramatic, the action match editing reflects it. For example towards the end there is a section where there is a heavy beat of the drums and then three loud beats. The camera cuts to each of those beats and changes to a different close up.
This video portrays both of the star images effectively as they are similar artists within the same genre and have the same kind of image. They are looking to sell this track by showing lots of close up of the two big R’n’B stars. Having then collaborating on a track would have attracted a huge audience as they are both really famous within the genre, so it is important to have lots of close up and use split screens to show them together in order to showcase them both individually and together, as well as cross cutting to also show this. Both of there star images are very glamorous and rich, as they have been around for a long time, so they keep within the genre that they do best and create a video to reflect that. Also if you look at previous videos, they all have the same motifs about girls, money and living a life of luxury, so its giving the audience what it expects of them and not trying to challenge the stereotypes and it sells really well as it is because they have such a big star image.
The norm within the R’n’B genre is to have a lot of voyeurism and this is evident in this video. We constantly get close ups of this beautiful woman dressed in provocative clothing, making her seem really desirable and sexy. She is used for sexual display and this again is a very common convention for this genre, as voyerism tends to be the norm within this genre, and for music video's in general. A medium shot is used at the beginning, which tilts slowly up her body revealing her figure and then her face. She is overly sexualised purely for the audience to admire her and ‘look in on her’. However as there is a lot of direct mode of address so it could be argued she is an exhibitionist as she likes the attention she is receiving from both men and sends them pictures of herself, which we see in a close up image of their phones. The reason R’n’B video’s are highly sexualised is because they have an older target audience of around 16-30 year olds. Women admire the women and want to be them and men want them, so it draws in and attracts the target audience for this music video.
There are not many intertexual references in this video other than the story line which is common in a lot of television shows, as the idea of two friends being with the same girl is evident in a lot of media texts, therefore it is something the audience understands and it makes it easy for the target audience to follow the linear narrative as it is often a narrative played on my soap opera’s. In one of the flashbacks, there is a reference to one of the video’s from R Kelly’s hit ‘Ignition’, as Usher is seen in a blue lit club dancing with a girl, which it exactly what happens in the ‘Ignition’ video.
The music video is a mixture of narrative and performance as they are combined. The artists are clearly performing in the video and we see them singing, however there is still a narrative that fits perfectly with the lyrics so they are performing the song by living it out. The lyrics seem to be a conversation between the two which allows a performance as well as a storyline to occur.
Overall I think this video is a classic example of a conventional R and B music video, as it heavily sells the artist based on their glamorous lifestyle and is overly sexualised, as this is what their target audience expect and want to see. It also goes in line with both artist star image and represents them similarly to how they were view before.
No comments:
Post a Comment